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Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Visionary of Weimar Berlin
by Daniel Brook
An illuminating portrait of a lost thinker, German-Jewish sexologist and activist Magnus Hirschfeld.
More than a century ago, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld first argued that gender and sexuality were fluid. Dubbed "the Einstein of Sex," Hirschfeld grew famous (and infamous) for his liberating theory of sexual relativity. Today, he's been largely forgotten.
Journalist Daniel Brook reinvigorates Hirschfeld's legacy, recovering one of the great visionaries of the twentieth century. As an advocate for trans acceptance and the decriminalization of homosexuality, Hirschfeld served as intellectual impresario to Weimar Berlin's libertine cabaret culture. Driven from his homeland by fascists, he embarked on a global survey of human sexuality and witnessed the diversity of gay life, as well as the impacts of imperialism and racism firsthand. Hirschfeld spent his final years in exile, working to debunk Nazi race science and warn the world of the genocidal dangers of racism. Rich in passion and intellect, The Einstein of Sex at last brings together this unsung icon's work on sexuality, gender, and race and recovers the globe-trotting visionary who first saw beyond the binaries.
"This vital biography from journalist Brook shines a light on forward-thinking German physician Magnus Hirschfeld, who was born in 1868...Brook's elegant elucidation of Hirschfeld's theories proves that there's nothing new about the idea that gender and sexuality exist on a spectrum...This will stick with readers long after they finish the last page." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A well-informed life of a scientist worth remembering." —Kirkus Reviews
"A revelatory biography of perhaps our most important unsung queer hero. Over a century ago, Hirschfeld introduced the Western world to the heretical idea that humans navigate spectrums of sexuality, gender and even race, and that this complexity is deeply healthy for our development as humans. We now know Magnus was right." ―John Cameron Mitchell, Tony-award winning director, writer, and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch
"Magnus Hirschfield belongs on the short list of great twentieth-century social scientists. Instead, his name is largely forgotten. In this riveting historical biography, Daniel Brook narrates the brilliant life and violent suppression of a queer, Jewish, cosmopolitan intellectual whose ideas about sexuality and race were ahead of their time and as urgent today as they were a century ago." ―Eric Klinenberg, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University
This information about The Einstein of Sex was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Daniel Brook is a journalist whose writing has appeared in Harper's Magazine, the Nation, and the New York Times Magazine and the author of several books, including A History of Future Cities. A New York native and a Yale graduate, Brook lives in New Orleans. He researched The Einstein of Sex in Berlin on a Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship.
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