'Diligent and even-handed... the pictorial richness of this book is a delight' - The Times Literary Supplement

Gay Life and Culture provides a complete overview of the long histroy out of which today's rich and varied gay culture has emerged. In this extraordinarily wide-ranging book, historians from nine different countries consider the evidence for same-sex relationships throughout the centuries, charting shifting attitudes towards homosexuality and the gradual emergence of a concept of self-identity. From homoerotic Persian poetry to tales of cross-dressing women in 18th -century Italy, from the wild, hedonistisc delights of between-the-wars Berlin to concepts of a third gender in Asia and Native North America - all are discussed and recounted from memoirs, letters, archives, and works of art and literature.

Robert Aldrich is Professor of European History at the University of Sydney, and is the author of The Seduction of the Mediterranean, Colonialism and Homosexuality  and The Age of Empires.

With 253 illustrations, 127 in colour