There are a lot of books that focus on the history of the U.S. Presidency that I don’t read. Lots. In fact, there’s an almost undending stream of them!

You’re coming from expertise in an entirely different century than I am, and you’re not very interested in the feminist scholarship that built much of the framework for your book. But that’s what I’m interested in, given my training and interests, and that’s what interests most of my readers. But we of course are not your target audience–so I’m sure that whatever we think will be entirely irrelevant in the overall scheme of things.

Not only did you miss Katz who is extensively discussed in the text of the book but you also missed our citations of William Benemann “Intimacy in Early America,” Rodger Streitmatter “Empty without You: The Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickock,” (Cook actualy had 7 citations of her two volumes on Eleanor Roosevelt), David K Johnson “The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government.”

You must admit that pulling out a handful of historians and criticizing us for not citing them is not at all fair. What history cites everything?

I still would like you to review the book. Let me know if you want a copy and Ill have one sent to you.

Leila Rupp: 0 citations
Martin Duberman: 0 citations
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg: 0 citations
Nancy Isenberg: 0 citations
Blanche Wiesen Cook: 1 citation

Please correct me if the search engine didn’t pick up these names. I skimmed over the footnotes but I’m sure it’s possible that I missed them.

Understand that my critique here was not so much about your book with Flynt in particular as it is about the genre and style of writing popular histories. I know that trade publishers are pretty hostile to the scholarly apparatus and that you’re limited to only very brief footnotes, etc. But understand too that it grinds the gears of those of us who were publicly scolded in conferences & risked our careers to advance what were seen as “dangerous” and “subversive” ideas and have finally published them with university presses to see our work both not credited for its insights and then ALSO scolded publicly by the likes of Flynt.

My point is that your book with Flynt rests on the labors of a lot of people who worked for years to win professional and public acceptance for their scholarship, but once again they get lumped in perjoratively with all “historians” as anal-retentive killjoys whose ideas are at war with the ideas in your book.

http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Power-Revolution-David-Eisenbach/dp/0786716339

When you read the book you will notice many gay and female heroes from Frederick Von Steuben to Eleanor Roosevelt. We made a great effort to give women and and gays a central place in the history of the presidency and America. All I ask is that after you read the book to please offer a review. I promise you will not be disappointed.

David Eisenbach

Why can’t we have more Time Haters and more slave masters shot at point-blank range? I don’t get it.

The moral of the story–perhaps not everyone shares my sense of humor on pimps, pistols, and manumission.