Stonewall : the riots that sparked the gay revolution

David Carter

In 1969, a series of riots over police action at The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New Yprk City's Greenwich Village changed the landscape of the homosexual in society, literally overnight. These riots are widely acknowledged as the 'first shot' that ushered in a previously unimagined era of openness, political action, and massive social change. Coming during a time when lesbians and gays were routinely closeted and in fear of losing their jobs, their apartments, their families and even their freedom, these riots - barely covered in the media at the time - were the spark that led to a new militancy and openness in the gay political movement. David Carter provides an in-depth account of those riots as well as a complete background of the bar, the area in which the riots occurred, and the social, political, and legal climate that led up to those events. Based on over a decade of research, hundreds of interviews, and an exhaustive search of public and private records, Stonewall is the story of one of modern history's most singular events.