The Secret Public
The Secret Public by Jon Savage is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 1 of the year's most respected lists, including The Guardian, for a Consensus Score of 13 out of 100.
Appears on these lists
Our take
AI-draftedSavage organizes his history around five flashpoints between 1955 and 1979 when queer sensibility broke into mainstream pop, from Little Richard's flamboyance through disco's Sylvester, treating those moments as inseparable from the parallel fight for gay civil rights happening offstage. Reviewers keep noting the combination of an academic's appetite for surprising detail with a music journalist's instinct for narrative propulsion.
In the press
“A dazzling account of the dreamers and divas who brought a queer sensibility to culture – and changed lives in the process”
The Guardian
How the Consensus Score is calculated
Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.
| Source | Authority | Recency | Award | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Guardian | 0.85 | 0.70 | 1.00× | 0.59 |
| Weighted sum → Score | 0.59 → 13 | |||
Similar consensus books
Because they appear on some of the same lists.
Frequently asked
What lists is The Secret Public on?
The Secret Public appears on 1 list in our 2026 corpus, including The Guardian.
What is its Consensus Score?
The Secret Public has a Consensus Score of 13 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.