‘Stormtrooper Families: Homosexuality and Community in the Early Nazi Movement’ By Andrew Wackerfuss

This book is just as dense and serious as the title implies. That being said, it is one of the most readable histories of anything I’ve seen in a long, long time. Extensively researched using on-site sources, Wackerfuss has taken published and unpublished materials to build an historical narrative that shows us how the conflict between homosexuality and masculinity informed early fascist politics. This, of course, influenced the SA (abbreviation for Sturmabteilung, which means “storm troopers” or Nazi street fighters) power struggles that took Weimar Germany into the Third Reich. Read this volume as a cautionary tale, since the same power struggles (grounded in the same issues) are playing out in modern fascist movements. A fascinating, well-researched and well-written book, this one is a keeper. Harrington Park Press (harringtonparkpress.com). —Angel Curtis