Stonewall - by David Carter (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

David Carter's Stonewall is the basis of the PBS American Experience documentary Stonewall Uprising.

In 1969, a series of riots over police action against The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, changed the longtime landscape of the homosexual in society literally overnight. Since then the event itself has become the stuff of legend, with relatively little hard information available on the riots themselves. Now, based on hundreds of interviews, an exhaustive search of public and previously sealed files, and over a decade of intensive research into the history and the topic, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution brings this singular event to vivid life in this, the definitive story of one of history's most singular events.

A Randy Shilts / Publishing Triangle Award Finalist

"Riveting...Not only the definitive examination of the riots but an absorbing history of pre-Stonewall America, and how the oppression and pent-up rage of those years finally ignited on a hot New York night." - Boston Globe

Review Quotes

"A terrific piece of nonfiction, a satisfying and illuminating document that will be referred to time and again." --The Advocate

"Considering all that went before, the ongoing repression and corruption, and the scent of social and political liberation in the air, Carter's eloquent account makes it clear that something was bound to catch fire...A complete, full-bodied portrait, with lots of flesh on the bones of a strong narrative structure." --Kirkus Reviews

"No matter what you may believe about the event, you will gain new insights. Historically important and socially significant." --Dallas Morning News

"A gripping, hour-by-hour reconstruction...this definitive account is long overdue but well worth the wait." --Richard Labonte, Bookmarks

"Stonewall presents a thorough and often compelling reconstruction of the nearly weeklong protest...provides thoughtful and sometimes delightfully quirky details about the era's gay culture and politics, Greenwich Village itself, and the New Yorkers - from mobsters to flame queens to cops - who that morning stumbled into history." --Providence Journal-Bulletin

"A beautifully written, suspenseful narrative that also meets the toughest tests of academic research." --Bay Area Reporter

About the Author

David Carter (1952-2020) had a varied career as a writer, editor, and filmmaker. He is the author of biographies of Salvador Dali and George Santayana, he edited and compiled Spontaneous Mind, a collection of interviews with Allen Ginsberg, and directed the film Meher Baba in Italy for Peter Townshend. Carter has a B.A. from Emory University and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin. He lived in Greenwich Village in New York City.