Wolfenden’s Witnesses

The papers of the Wolfenden Committee (1954–7), held by the National Archives at Kew, provide a unique insight into how homosexuality was understood in post-war Britain. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a departmental committee which had been appointed to consider and recommend changes to the laws relating to homosexual offences and prostitution, this inquiry privileged certain ‘expert’ voices at the expense of others. Nevertheless, the Wolfenden papers contain a wide range of perspectives from more than 200 individual witnesses and representatives of professional organizations. In this edited source collection, Brian Lewis offers an extensive and meticulous selection of previously unpublished written evidence and oral testimony on mostly male homosexuality (although the volume also incorporates interesting insights into how female homosexuality was understood by a number of ‘experts’). Throughout Wolfenden’s Witnesses, Lewis offers ample contextualization and illuminating annotations of the material which, because it was produced solely for the aid of the committee, allow for fascinating glimpses into the deliberations of the Wolfenden inquiry—their immediate responses to some witness statements, their attempts to negotiate their way through a variety of competing discourses, and their deliberations on important and controversial issues

Contextualization · Homosexuality · Negotiation · Political science · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Witness · European history and politics · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Philosophy