In collaboration with the History Book Festival, join us to talk with Eric Cervini, author of The Deviant's War, one of the books featured at the 2020 virtual History Book Festival.

In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the U.S. Defense Department in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, D.C. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny, like countless gay men and women before him, was promptly dismissed from his government job. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back.

Based on firsthand accounts, recently declassified FBI records, and forty thousand personal documents, Eric Cervini's The Deviant's War unfolds over the course of the 1960s, as the Mattachine Society of Washington, the group Kameny founded, became the first organization to protest the systematic persecution of gay federal employees. It traces the forgotten ties that bound gay rights to the Black Freedom Movement, the New Left, lesbian activism, and trans resistance. Above all, it is a story of America (and Washington) at a cultural and sexual crossroads; of shocking, byzantine public battles with Congress; of FBI informants; murder; betrayal; sex; love; and ultimately victory.

Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ culture and politics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. The Deviant’s War, a New York Times Bestseller, is his first book. Paul M. Smith will interview Cervini. Smith is an attorney who has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court 21 times. He represented the plaintiffs in the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas, in which the Court ruled that laws prohibiting private homosexual activity between consenting adults are unconstitutional.

We invite you to support the author by purchasing a copy of his book from the Festival's official bookseller, Browseabout Books, by clicking HERE. Call-in orders are accepted or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes. Each copy purchased comes with a signed archival bookplate.

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