One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Love is a 1990 book about homosexuality in ancient Greece by classicist David M. Halperin.

Contents

Halperin is an American exponent of the social constructionist school of thought associated with the French philosopher Michel Foucault. Social constructionists argue that categories such as "homosexual" and "heterosexual" have emerged from the social, political and scientific debate over sexuality that has taken place since the late 19th century, and that the application of such categories to people in effect makes them "homosexual" or "heterosexual".^[1]

Halperin's book was published in 1990,^[2] two years before the centenary of Charles Gilbert Chaddock's English translation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psycopathia sexuallis. Chaddock is credited with the first use of the term "homosexual" in this translation.^[3] Halperin believes that the introduction of this term marks an important change in the treatment and consideration of homosexuality,^[2] which he sees as a social construction.^[1]

Scholarly reception

One Hundred Years of Homosexuality was praised by numerous scholars, including philosopher Martha Nussbaum. However, it received a negative review from literary scholar Camille Paglia, who accused Halperin of poor scholarship and careerism.^[4] Neuroscientist Simon LeVay criticized Halperin's arguments, stating that, "It seems to me quite artificial to make the existence of homosexuality dependent on the coinage of a term to describe it." LeVay concluded his discussion of Halperin's ideas with the comment that, "Social constructivists, particularly of the "strong" variety represented by Halperin, seem to want to replace consciousness with self-consciousness, and a highly linguistic self-consciousness at that."^[1]