as argued by previous scholars who had considered the matter (such as Giovanni Tamassia and Paul Koschaker), and that homosexual lovers were commonly characterized in the classical and early medieval worlds as "brothers". Moreover, Mendelsohn impugned Boswell's decision to pitch his work at a general audience incapable of critically evaluating the philological and documentary evidence adduced, arguing that the work as a whole rested on "a rhetorical strategy whose disingenuousness verges on fraud." The sexologists Timothy Perper and Martha Cornog reviewed Same-Sex Unions for The Journal of Sex Research, noting that Boswell was clearly aware of the social repercussions of his work for contemporary lesbian and gay people. They believed that its direct effect on American political and social thought would be its greatest influence, far beyond that which it had within medieval scholarship. Although stating that they were not convinced by all of Boswell's arguments, and were unqualified to judge many others, they thought that the book constituted a "major work of historiography" by bringing many neglected primary sources to a wider audience. In the International Gay and Lesbian Review, Elisabeth J. Davenport positively reviewed Boswell's book, remarking that it "appears to leave no imaginable ground upon which his accusers can challenge him." Noting that the book had been criticised before it had even been published by those opposed to its findings, she states her belief that while the case he presents is not infallible, the evidence "leans in his favour". Praising his use of footnotes, she considered it meticulously researched, and ultimately notes that it "adds both liveliness and dignity to the debate" regarding same-sex unions in pre-modern Europe, as such providing a "fitting memorial" for Boswell. The historian Robin Darling Young disputed Boswell's thesis as well. Brent Shaw has also criticized Boswell's methodology and conclusions. "Boswell's tendency to misconstrue evidence extends beyond simple matters of definition, however, to the very social institutions that are central to his analysis." In Shaw's view, Boswell's analysis compares unfavorably to that of Gabriel Herman who studied "ritualized kinship" in the 1987 Ritualized Friendship and the Greek City. "The kinds of words used to express the new relationship of 'brothers' (words that are also found in Boswell's ecclesiastical rituals) were employed precisely because the men often entered into these relationships not out of love, but out of fear and suspicion. Hence the effusive emphasis on safety and trust." Judge John T. Noonan