“[A] rich and complicated argument built out of fascinating material, and well worth the time of careful readers of American culture.” — Regina Morantz-Sanchez , American Studies
“[A]n insightful look at the politics of social construction. Reading [Sapphic Slashers] opens up the world and puts the creation of mass culture in historical perspective.” — Eleanor J. Bader, Foreword
“[I]mpressive. . . . [A] fascinating and unique investigation into how sensationalism of sex and violence was used to marginalize people and how lesbians (before such a concept existed) were ‘racialized’ at the turn of the century to explain their crimes. While it’s sometimes difficult to imagine a world without today’s intense categorization of sexual orientation, Duggan does a splendid job of accounting and analyzing two phenomena: a lynching narrative that motivated widespread murders and a lesbian love story that gave interpretive framework to rarer crimes.” — Diane Anderson-Minshall , Bitch
“An engrossing and meticulous study. . . .[Sapphic Slashers] exhumes and ponders a full arena of late-19th-century concerns, including racial injustice, boomtown commerce, suffragism, medical mores, expectations of middle class white femininity, and the impact of an emerging national press. This kitchen-sink approach is breathtaking. . . . Duggan nails the interconnections. . . . ” — Elizabeth Pincus , Voice Literary Supplement
“Duggan . . . analyzes the narratives of ‘Lesbian love murder’ for what they reveal about ongoing stereotypes of the homicidal butch and her femme victim. . . . Contemporary press coverage and letters between Ward and Mitchell are particularly compelling.” — The Washington Blade
“Duggan extensively references works linking the cultural production of gender, race, and class.” — John Rockwell Snowden, The Journal of American History
“Duggan has an admirable command of the multiple discourses which contexture reality. . . . With a helpful sense of irony [she] warns about the power of mass media and the narratives we construct for our tragedies today.” — Lauren Dockett, Girlfriends
“Duggan makes imaginative use of a celebrated murder case in late-nineteenth-century Memphis, Tennessee, to examine the emergence of the lesbian romance narrative and its power both to ascribe meaning to and set parameters for white, middle-class, heterosexual courtship and marriage. . . . [A] well-written and engaging account that deals with an aspect of American society and culture that has yet to receive the scholarly attention it deserves.” — E. Susan Barber, The North Carolina Historical Review
“Duggan presents an extensive study of the 1892 murder in Memphis. . . . A compelling read, this book presents a tremendous amount of primary-source material. . . .” — Library Journal
“Duggan’s Sapphic Slashers explains how various forces in American culture worked with and against each other in creating a turn-of-the-century subject, in this case the lesbian love murder. Americans would do well to pay attention to these same forces in our own era that help define how we imagine sexuality, love, race and violence.” — Elizabeth Reis , Sexualities
“In placing the story in a larger context, Duggan asks important questions. . . . [S]he has included part of the local press coverage and letters between Alice and Freda as valuable appendices.” — Perre Magness , The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
“Lisa Duggan’s wonderful new book charts a departure from the genre of US lesbian and gay social history. . . . [Her] emphasis on cultural analysis ushers lesbian and gay studies onto fertile new ground.” — Nan Alamilla Boyd , Women's Review of Books
“With a brilliant yet accessible prose style that sexily straddles the academic divide, Duggan places the almost-forgotten murder at the root of 20th-century American mass culture’s fascination with the figure of the homicidal lesbian. . . . [E]minently readable and bloodily compelling. . . .” — Bethany Schneider, Out
"Duggan provides a dense and broad reading. . . . Duggan has given us an important book that is required reading for anyone interested in how discourses of race and sexuality shape our modern perceptions." — Roberta C. Martin , NWSA Journal
"Duggan writes beautifully and has produced a book of wide scope. Each chapter . . . is informative, historiographically synthetic, and a great read." — Stephanie H. Kenen , Law and History Review
"Duggan's treatment of the Mitchell-Ward case itself is solid, insightful, often gripping and well-written, and the ensuing discussion of the scientific and literary construction of lesbianism is similarly commendable. It is also refreshing to read a book about the cultural history of the United States that acknowledges and incorporates influences and legacies from beyond its own borders, something that is still all too rare, especially in studies that involve the media." — Barbara M. Freeman , H-Net
"In less capable hands, [Alice Mitchell's] story, or rather the stories produced about her, would merit at most a footnote in histories of the period. In Duggan's hands, these stories help us to understand the operations of power and knowledge in American society, then and now." — Marc Stein , American Historical Review
“A book to die for! Theoretically sophisticated, yet written with clarity and elegance, Sapphic Slashers opens whole new worlds of understanding about sexuality, gender norms, racial injustice, violence, and the complex ways they are connected. Full of passion and intelligence, it made me think in fresh new ways about issues of great importance. Duggan’s is an amazing intellect.” — John D’Emilio, coauthor of Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America
“Duggan seamlessly combines cultural theory with analyses of material conditions and demonstrates a breathtaking command of American cultural institutions—the mass press, the judicial systems, the medical literature. The book is not only smart about the interconnections between gender, sex, race, class, and nation, but is also lucid, making a good read.” — Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, author of Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community
“In this stunningly coherent and compelling account of the development of ‘American modernity,’ Duggan captures our interest with the sensational tale of lesbian love murder but then insists that we read this tale through turn-of-the-century debates over racial violence and against the backdrop of the medicalization of homosexuality. Sapphic Slashers has ‘classic’ written all over it.” — Jack Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity
“What Duggan does in this original and moving book is take a murder case from 1890’s Memphis and make of it a prism through which to illuminate American modernity. Her method depends less on an account of the murder or of the judicial procedure that followed it than on an analysis of the many narratives—of lesbian love and sex and madness—that the case occasioned. Juxtaposing these narratives to narratives of lynching, Duggan produces a tour-de-force of historical understanding.” — Henry Abelove, Wesleyan University