Despite getting quite a number of raised eyebrows when people caught sight of me reading this, it's not at all prurient or salacious. It's actually rather fascinating, despite the fact that the title really ought to be (A Mostly Heterosexual) History of Sexuality in America. There is very little in here about asexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, which are mostly mentioned only in passing or in opposition to the prevailing heterosexual norm. I can understand why, to a certain extent, as the overwhelming majorities of studies to this point have focused on heterosexuality, and the relatively recent rise of gay liberation and the GLBTQ movement has meant that attention is really only now beginning to focus on social studies of homosexuality.

This book charts the evolution of sexuality throughout America's history: from the colonial period, where sex was firmly rooted to reproduction within the context of marriage, men and women had clearly defined and very separates spheres of existence, and the community, church and government took a firm role in regulating people's behaviour; through the nineteenth century, when sex began to take on associations not just with reproduction, but with concepts such as spiritual union, romantic love, emotional satisfaction, and personal identity, still all within the context of marital union, however, and sex began to be commercialised through prostitution and the nacent pornography industry; to the twentieth century, when birth control meant that sex could almost be entirely detached from reproduction, the importance of sex to personal identity and happiness meant that it began to be divorced from the concept of marriage, and the growth of the economy led to the commercialisation of sex and the sexualisation of commerce.

What I found interesting is that the history of sexuality in America is very much a story of evolution and progress all the way up to the twenteith century, when the pendulum of liberalism and conservatism begins to swing back and forth, as one generation reacts to the excesses or prudishness of the other. The 20s were a more permissive era; the 40s and 50s swung back to early marriage, large families and social conservatism; the 1960s moved back to liberalism and social rights movements; the late 1970s and 80s heralded the rise of evangelicalism and conservatism, permeated with interludes of hysteria about homosexuality, AIDS, teen pregnancies and sex education.

Written as it was in the 80s, it would be interesting to see this book updated with a new edition bringing it up to date, as the current era seems to contain both liberalism and conservatism in one, and really highlights the dichotomies and divides that the issue of sexuality seems to generate in America.

A sweeping, very influential overview of sex and sexuality in American history.

Really thorough history of marriage and sex 16th-Century thru 20th-Century. Very enlightening, especially around intersections of race and class and how control of sexuality has been used as a tool to maintain hierarchies in the United States. Also really enlightening history on the ever-changing meaning of marriage among differing groups and religions. Could have been more nuanced around some of the feminist history but all in all, really great book. Highly recommend it!

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A ground breaker!

Such an interesting theme! Such a bad book. Emilio just pushes trivia and jumps to conclusions. The research is shallow the text is just a long string of badly collated vignettes.

Some sections were difficult to get through but overall this was an informative read. I read this one for a class so I did skip around a bit and it might be an easier read if you go in order. This book is a great overview of American sexuality though, and a precursor to any deep dive you may want to do.

Thorough and informative. I took a star off because I think other historians have written about most of these topics in a more engaging, readable way (Stephanie Coontz, Nancy F. Cott). But for sheer scope, this book feels pretty close to comprehensive.

This edition ends in the '80s, so it was kinda depressing in the final chapter knowing how political conservativism, particularly its religious fundie aspects, ended up becoming dominant and rolling back many of the gains of the feminist and gay rights movements. Their ideology is so fear-based, so NOT based in rationality or factual evidence. I feel like I can breathe a little now that they have lost a lot of their power, but damn, we really gotta remain vigilent. There's no reasoning with people who operate from fear. Assholes.

It’s quite an exhaustive and detailed history of, well, mainly heterosexuality in America. I thought initially that it would be a collection of essays rather than an academic study, but despite being dry in places, it was well worth reading. I learned quite a bit, especially about Puritanism – it was much more permissive and egalitarian and far less hypocritical than I thought, so I gained some respect for Puritans. Век живи – век учись. Puritans! Goodness me!

You’d think a book about sex wouldn’t be this boring. But here we are.

I will admit that it is odd that I, a prude, read this book, and even more odd that I found it illuminating and engaging. Originally published at the end of the 1980s, my copy was a second edition updated a decade later (so it was still somewhat out of date, though that doesn't matter too much in a 400-year history). There is a third edition available. It was also much more scholarly than I was expecting, which isn't a bad thing since along with being a prude I am also an intellectual.