A new edition of a classic work of history, revealing the anti-homosexual purges of midcentury Washington.In
The Lavender Scare, David K. Johnson tells the frightening story of how, during the Cold War, homosexuals were considered as dangerous a threat to national security as Communists. Charges that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were havens for homosexuals proved a potent political weapon, sparking a “Lavender Scare” more vehement and long-lasting than Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare. Drawing on declassified documents, years of research in the records of the National Archives and the FBI, and interviews with former civil servants, Johnson recreates the vibrant gay subculture that flourished in midcentury Washington and takes us inside the security interrogation rooms where anti-homosexual purges ruined the lives and careers of thousands of Americans. This enlarged edition of Johnson’s classic work of history—the winner of numerous awards and the basis for an acclaimed documentary broadcast on PBS—features a new epilogue, bringing the still-relevant story into the twenty-first century.
David K. Johnsonis professor of history at the University of South Florida and the author of
Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement.
The Lavender Scare, a phrase invented David K. Johnson, alludes to the systematic persecution of homosexuals (both men and women) in Washington, DC, that began in the early years of the Cold War and lasted until, roughly, the early 1970s. It was the Siamese twin of the notorious Red Scare, which had a similar lifespan and started for similar reasons. Given the degree of injustice and the scale of the suffering caused by the Lavender Scare, it seems astonishing that no one before Johnson has thought to write its history, whereas there is a small library of books dealing with the anti-Communist crusade. . . . Time has thus created an opportunity and Dr. l%
![The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/2/7/6/2_5475874.jpg "The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal [Paperback]")