A very important book for anyone interested in how sexuality has shaped the history of our country.

This book was published over 25 years ago, but it's still fascinating and quite relevant.

It's a broad survey of sexual attitudes and behaviors In the US, starting with the colonial era (and ending in the 1980's, since that is when it was written). It seems that things were much different than what we imagine, back then. The Puritans were not nearly as staid as you might think! (The opinion I seem to hear a lot is that basically everyone lived in a 1950's style family unit with 1950's style morals for ever and ever from the beginning of time until the hippies shook things up. Not true, but I can see why that is an attractive fantasy for some.)

The overlooked bits of history are fascinating, but what engaged me the most was the way you can see in this book the roots of a lot of the really ugly things that still exist in our current culture, especially regarding race and how sex workers are treated. The authors don't draw these parallels, and I think the lack of moralizing or editorial comment makes this a stronger book, but seriously, these issues didn't just spring out of nowhere. The sections on race are particularly hard to read, and it's depressing that so many harmful stereotypes live on despite the advances we've made.

It might be a bit dense for some readers, but anyone with an interest in the history of sex should certainly add this to their reading list.

Still the go-to book on the history of sexuality...lays it all out there and analyzes it brilliantly.

Packed with facts about sex in America from 1600-1985. It's held up surprisingly well since it was published. It focuses more on ~what happened than explicating theories of gender and sexuality, and is an excellent foundational introductory text to the field of the history of sex.

I am so excited there is a new edition. Probably more than I should be.

freaking awesome. really appreciate that it tries not to be just a sexual history of the white middle class, but a lot of this is buried

I learned most of this already in my undergrad WS classes.

quite a slog, essentially a college level textbook, but goddddd was this informative

The depth and breadth of this book is staggering, as is its ease of reading and supple organization. I can't think of another book so broad on the subject of human sexuality that is so well constructed. That said, SO MUCH is here that anyone's personal pet sub-subject may not get the space it might otherwise deserve. An impossible task made possible.

Good synthesis. Nicely organized, and easy to read. The only reason that I wouldn't give it 5-stars is because only really highlighted mainstream sexuality and the struggle to understand/maintain those norms (though the authors are careful to include gay/lesbian history as well). I wish there had been more discussion of the taboo, juxtaposed with their discussion of the norms. I will likely hunt down a copy of the 2nd edition to fill the void left by their hasty epilogue in the 1st edition that I read.

This is a dry, academic study of sexual behavior in what is now the USA from the colonial period until the time of publication (1988). Among its virtues are efforts to distinguish between regions, races and classes. Among its deficits are the introductions and conclusions appended to its sections and subsections, all of which are yawningly abstract summaries of what is to come or of what has just happened. This may be in accord with any number of style books, but the way these authors handle it gives their book the freshness of a textbook.

In broadest strokes, the thesis of the book is that sex has become increasingly divorced from reproduction. Although written at the height of the Reagan backlash against what they term "sexual liberalism", the exigencies of capitalism make this movement well nigh irresistible.

read for uni but very interesting on sexuality history!