Whether you call it a riot or an uprising, an event that took place on June 28, 1969, was seminal. That was the night when customers of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, fought back against a police raid, helping to usher in an age of LGBTQ liberation. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of Stonewall, editor Jason Baumann, assistant director for collection development and coordinator of humanities and LGBT collections at the New York Public Library, has combed the LGBTQ archives of the NYPL to offer this generous and eclectic assortment of writings about the historic event. The selection is divided into three sections: Before, During, and After Stonewall. The Before section, featuring writing by such well-known figures as authors John Rechy, Audre Lorde, and Samuel R. Delany, provides much-needed context. The During section, which offers detailed, first-person accounts of the night, will probably be of greatest interest to readers, though the third section, After, offers a mini-course in the history of the years immediately following Stonewall. This significant book does welcome justice to an event that author Edmund White, who wrote the foreword, says sparked an oceanic change in thinking. --Michael Cart Copyright 2019 Booklist

This expansive collection of documents from the New York Public Library's LGBTQ history archive constructs a vital and dynamic narrative of the early days of gay liberation through the words of activists, writers, and other eyewitnesses. The book follows the movement through the years just before Stonewall, the event itself, and the years after. Plenty of the essays and excerpts are not specifically about Stonewall, but provide a broader picture of inequality and persecution, as with the salacious press coverage of trans woman Christine Jorgensen's transition. The riots are revisited from multiple perspectives: in one piece, activist and journalist Dick Leitsch recounts the events in more or less direct prose; the following piece, by a former Stonewall patron, more lyrically describes the incident as "Mother Stonewall giving birth to a new era." This collection is significant for its inclusion of essays and selections from memoir that provide a more intimate understanding of the movement's history. In a selection from Karla Jay's memoir, the activist recalls protesting homophobia in the feminist community, and an interview with Kiyoshi Kuromiya explores the misogyny and racism in the early stages of the LGBTQ movement. This window into the daily lives of activists and ordinary people fighting passionately against injustice is illuminating and inspiring. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

THE PRESIDENTS: NOTED HISTORIANS RANK AMERICA'S BEST - AND WORST - CHIEF EXECUTIVES, by Brian Lamb, Susan Swain and ?-Span. (PublicAffairs, $32.) From No. 1 (Lincoln) to No. 43 (Buchanan), a ranking of every president except Donald Trump, as he's still in office. THE STONEWALL READER, edited by the New York Public Library. (Penguin Classics, paper, $18.) The Stonewall uprising, 50 years ago in June, is often seen as the start of the gay rights movement. This anthology of essays, articles, diary entries and more complicates that view by situating the protest in historical context. BECOME AMERICA: CIVIC SERMONS ON LOVE, RESPONSIBILITY, and democracy, by Eric Liu. (Sasquatch Books, $24.95.) A White House speechwriter under President Clinton, who now organizes secular "faith gatherings" to promote civics and democracy, collects his talks on patriotism, identity, responsibility and more. ON DEMOCRACY,by E. B. White. (Harper/HarperCollins, $24.99.) Decades before Liu, the essayist and children's book author White (best known for "Charlotte's Web") also thought eloquently about democracy and its demands, as this anthology shows. FLOYD HARBOR: STORIES, by Joel Mowdy. (Catapult, paper, $16.95.) Mowdy's gritty debut collection of linked stories is set in a rundown community on eastern Long Island, with characters struggling to overcome poverty and trauma.

The New York Public Library (NYPL), with a foreword by Edmund White (A Boy's Own Story), compiles experiences of LGBTQ Americans. Divided into three sections, this curated collection brings the Stonewall uprising to life. White sets the stage, noting the cultural context for the narratives which follow, while NYPL's Jason Baumann contributes an introduction further explaining historical, geographical, and scholarly context. Beginning with "Before Stonewall," readers are treated to excerpts from movement organizers such as Audre Lorde, Christine Jorgensen, and Ernestine Eckstein. These pieces expand on what life was like for the LGBTQ community prior to the Stonewall rebellion. The collection then moves to "During Stonewall," in which selections describe the event from various perspectives, including that of journalist Dick Leitsch, activist Marsha P. Johnson, and journalist Howard Smith. Finally, "After Stonewall" provides a look at how things changed or did not change post-riots, with words from Rev. Troy D. Perry, author Kiyoshi Kuromiya, and New York's first lady Chirlane McCray. VERDICT As a whole, this masterful collection is perhaps one of the most exhaustive looks at the events surrounding Stonewall from the LGBTQ perspective and provides a wonderfully diverse cast of voices. Scholars will find plenty of quotable material.-Abby Hargreaves, Dist. of Columbia P.L. © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A showcase of the work of activists and participants in the Stonewall uprising, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary.With his discerning selections, editor Baumann (editor: Love and Resistance: Out of the Closet into the Stonewall Era, 2019, etc.)assistant director for collection development for the New York Public Library and coordinator of the library's LGBT Initiativeprovides a street-level view of the Stonewall uprising, which helped launch the LGBTQ rights movement in the United States. Through his skillful curation, he offers a corrective for what is too often a sanitized, homogenous, and whitewashed portrayal of academics and professionals about the event sometimes termed "the hairpin drop heard around the world." By gathering vibrant and varied experiences of diverse contributors, the collection reflects the economic, gender, racial, and ethnic complexity of the LGBTQ community at a time when behaviors such as same-sex dancing were criminalized. Featuring essays, interviews, personal accounts, and news articles, Baumann's archival project accurately and meticulously captures an era of social unrest; the conversation about institutional discrimination and inequality presented here remains as revolutionary today as it did 50 years ago. The anthology invites us to look closely at the unresolved social dynamics of a population defined by its diversity, confronting sexism, racism, classism, and internalized homophobia alongside a broad view of institutional discrimination, heteronormativity, and sexual repression. Voices of significant leaders sit beside stories from participants behind protest lines, police raids, and street harassment, and the mounting frustration with an oppressive status quo becomes palpable on every page. The first-person narratives collected here effectively spotlight the social inequalities surrounding the LGBTQ community, many of which persist today.A bold rallying cry that should help in the continuing fight for LGBTQ rights. Read alongside Baumann's Love and Resistance and Marc Stein's The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History for a full education on the events before, during, and after Stonewall. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.