★ Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trial of Robert Newburgh

John Gilbert McCurdy. Johns Hopkins Univ., $34.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-4214-4853-4

The 1774 trial of British army chaplain Robert Newburgh (1742–1825) for “vicious and immoral behavior” sheds valuable light on contemporaneous ideas about homosexuality, according to this enlightening study from historian McCurdy (Quarters). On the eve of the American Revolution, a British military tribunal in New York debated whether Newburgh was guilty of “buggery.” McCurdy demonstrates that rumors of same-sex relationships had dogged Newburgh for years (flamboyant dress was among the evidence cited in court), but that he also had a reputation for aiding enlisted men embroiled in disputes with superiors. Partly for the latter reason, his 1774 court-martial also accused him of disobeying command and “arousing mutiny.” Revealing the fascinating extent to which these accusations of sexual deviance and rebelliousness intermingled, McCurdy explains that on the prosecution’s side, “the same words that were used to prosecute Newburgh were used to discourage American independence .... Sodomy and rebellion [were denounced] in the same breath.” Meanwhile, Newburgh used “the rhetoric of the Revolution” to “[defend] himself by proclaiming his liberties.” One of Newburgh’s staunchest defenders, British lieutenant Alexander Fowler, would eventually defect to join the revolution. McCurdy’s accessible narrative is steeped in interpersonal strife and courtroom drama. The result is an impressively finegrained look at the interplay between sexual and revolutionary politics. (June)

and future of “psychedelic healing.” He traces the history of psilocybin, ayahuasca, and other psychedelic compounds from Indigenous healing ceremonies starting around 3000 BCE, to their current “revival” by Western scientists and doctors whose research has indicated such potential benefits as reduced anxiety, amplified creativity, and spiritual uplift (users of DMT reliably encounter otherworldly beings, and ayahuasca trips often turn up “dark spirits”). Lawlor wisely refrains from overselling the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics, noting that users shouldn’t envision the drugs as a “magical cure-all” and that they must actively engage in the “healing process.” Unfortunately, the narrative consists of a dizzying range of topics and tonal registers, from the clinical (“High LSD doses facilitate regression into earlier, traumatized states, opening the opportunity for compassionate contact with repressed material to

meet the unmet needs at the core of the wound”) to the philosophical (“Separation of psychedelic use and intentional rituals is endemic of capitalism’s itemization of reality”). Despite those rough edges, Lawlor’s case for psychedelic therapy offers plenty of captivating insights. For readers curious about the topic, it’s worth a look. (June)