diff --git a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitive.java b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitive.java
index ad868c65..42463f8f 100644
--- a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitive.java
+++ b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitive.java
@@ -131,11 +131,8 @@ public final class JsonPrimitive extends JsonElement {
     if (isBoolean()) {
       return getAsBooleanWrapper().booleanValue();
     } else {
-      // Check to see if the value (as a String) is either "true" (ignore case) or "1".
-      // If so then we will assume that it is true; otherwise, false.
-      // The "1" case is for parsing JSON that assume bits as booleans (i.e. 0 and 1).
-      String stringValue = getAsString();
-      return Boolean.parseBoolean(stringValue) || "1".equals(stringValue);
+      // Check to see if the value as a String is "true" in any case.
+      return Boolean.parseBoolean(getAsString());
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapters.java b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapters.java
index 3183b0c2..5c6ec3eb 100644
--- a/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapters.java
+++ b/gson/src/main/java/com/google/gson/internal/bind/TypeAdapters.java
@@ -114,6 +114,9 @@ public final class TypeAdapters {
       if (reader.peek() == JsonToken.NULL) {
         reader.nextNull();
         return null;
+      } else if (reader.peek() == JsonToken.STRING) {
+        // support strings for compatibility with GSON 1.7
+        return Boolean.parseBoolean(reader.nextString());
       }
       return reader.nextBoolean();
     }
diff --git a/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitiveTest.java b/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitiveTest.java
index ac36bc27..821c5cae 100644
--- a/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitiveTest.java
+++ b/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/JsonPrimitiveTest.java
@@ -38,10 +38,10 @@ public class JsonPrimitiveTest extends TestCase {
 
     // Extra support for booleans
     json = new JsonPrimitive(1);
-    assertTrue(json.getAsBoolean());
+    assertFalse(json.getAsBoolean());
 
     json = new JsonPrimitive("1");
-    assertTrue(json.getAsBoolean());
+    assertFalse(json.getAsBoolean());
 
     json = new JsonPrimitive("true");
     assertTrue(json.getAsBoolean());
diff --git a/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/functional/PrimitiveTest.java b/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/functional/PrimitiveTest.java
index a9ece86c..e6c3f9a3 100644
--- a/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/functional/PrimitiveTest.java
+++ b/gson/src/test/java/com/google/gson/functional/PrimitiveTest.java
@@ -21,10 +21,13 @@ import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
 import com.google.gson.JsonPrimitive;
 import com.google.gson.JsonSyntaxException;
 import com.google.gson.LongSerializationPolicy;
+import com.google.gson.reflect.TypeToken;
 import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.math.BigDecimal;
 import java.math.BigInteger;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
 import junit.framework.TestCase;
 
 /**
@@ -792,4 +795,10 @@ public class PrimitiveTest extends TestCase {
       gson.fromJson("12121211243123245845384534687435634558945453489543985435", BigDecimal.class);
     assertEquals("12121211243123245845384534687435634558945453489543985435", actual.toPlainString());
   }
+
+  public void testStringsAsBooleans() {
+    String json = "['true', 'false', 'TRUE', 'yes', '1']";
+    assertEquals(Arrays.asList(true, false, true, false, false),
+        gson.<List<Boolean>>fromJson(json, new TypeToken<List<Boolean>>() {}.getType()));
+  }
 }