American Sexual Histories
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More About This Title American Sexual Histories

English

Elizabeth Reis teaches history and women's studies at the University of Oregon. She is the author of Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England (1997) and the editor of Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America (1998).

English

Series Editor's Preface.

Acknowledgements.

About the Contributors.

Introduction.

Part I: Early America:.

1. "Things Fearful to Name": Bestiality in Early America: John Murrin.

Document A: Of Plymouth Plantation: The Pilgrims in America: William Blandford.

Document B: Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, from 1638 to 1649.

Further Reading.

2. Eroticizing the Middle Ground: Anglo-Indian Sexual Relations along the Eighteenth-Century Frontier: Richard Godbeer.

Document A: John Rolfe to Sir Thomas Dale, April 1614.

Document B: A New Voyage to Carolina: John Lawson.

Document C: Quebec to Carolina in 1785-1786: Robert B. Hunter, Jr.

Further Reading.

3. "Girling of it" in Eighteenth-Century New Hampshire: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Lois K. Stabler.

Document A: Bundling: Its Origins, Progress, and Decline in America: Henry Stiles.

Document B: The Ladies Library.

Document C: Female Policy Detected, or the Arts of a Designing Woman Laid Open: Edward Ward.

Further Reading.

Part II: Nineteenth Century:.

4. The Psychology of Free Love: Sexuality in the Oneida Community: Lawrence Foster.

Document A: History of American Socialisms: John Humphrey Noyes.

Document B: Male Continence: John Humphrey Noyes.

Further Reading.

5. Ministerial Misdeeds: The Onderdonk Trial and Sexual Harassment in the 1840s: Patricia Cline Cohen.

Document A: Trial of the Right Rev. Benjamin T. Onderdonk, D.D., Bishop of New York.

Document B: De Darkies Comic Al-Me-Nig, 1846.

Further Reading.

6. White Women, Black Men, and Adultery in the Antebellum South: Martha Hodes.

Document A: Lewis Bourne Divorce Petition, Louisa County, Jan. 20, 1825.

Further Reading.

Part III: Early Twentieth Century:.

7. Hysteria: The Revolt of the Good Girl: Elizabeth Lunbeck.

Document A: The Case of Miss A: A Preliminary Report of a Psychoanalytic Study and Treatment of a Case of Self-Mutilation: L. E. Emerson.

Further Reading.

8. Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion? Homosexual Identities and the Construction of Sexual Boundaries in the World War I Era: George Chauncey, Jr.

Document A: Alleged Immoral Conditions and Practices at the Naval Training Station, Newport, R.I.

Document B: The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism: Edward Irenaeus Prime Stevenson.

Document C: Sexual Perversion, Satyriasis, and Nymphomania: G. Frank Lydston, M.D.

Further Reading.

9. About to Meet her Maker: Women, Doctors, Dying Declarations, and the State's Investigation of Abortion, Chicago, 1867-1940: Leslie J. Reagan.

Document A: A Maryland Abortionist Gets No Pardon.

Document B: Dying Declarations Obtained in Abortion Case as Condition to Rendering Aid.

Document C: Comments of "Esther E." in The Birth Control Review.

Further Reading.

10. Contraceptive Consumers: Gender and the Political Economy of Birth Control in the 1930s: Andrea Tone.

Document A: The Fear that "Blights" Romance and Ages Women Prematurely and The Incompatible Marriage: Is it a Case for Doctor or Lawyer?.

Document B: Facts and Frauds in Women's Hygiene: A Medical Guide Against Misleading Claims and Dangerous Products: Rachel Lynn Palmer and Sarah K. Greenberg.

Document C: What Do the American Women Think About Birth Control?: Henry F. Pringle.

Document D: The Accident of Birth.

Further Reading.

Part IV: Modern America:.

11. Mixing Bodies and Cultures: The Meaning of America's Fascination with Sex between "Orientals" and "Whites": Henry Yu.

Document A: A Stanford Girl Weds a Chinese.

Document B and C: My Oriental Husbands, Mrs. Emma Fong Kuno and Why Japanese and Americans Should Not Intermarry.

Document D: Intermarriage: Standpoint and Tentative Questionnaire - Confidential.

Further Reading.

12. The Sexualized Woman: The Lesbian, The Prostitute, and the Containment of Female Sexuality in Postwar America: Donna Penn.

Document A: Variations in Sexual Behavior: A Psychodynamic Study of Deviations in Various Expressions of Sexual Behavior: Frank Caprio.

Document B: I am a Homosexual Woman, Jane McKinnon.

Document C: The Detective, James Mills.

Document D: Beebo Brinker: Ann Bannon.

Further Reading.

13. The Population Bomb and the Sexual Revolution: Toward Choice: Rickie Solinger.

Document A: The Slavery of Sex Freedom: America's Moral Crisis: Howard Whitman.

Document B: Are We Still Stereotyping the Unmarried Mother?: Rose Bernstein.

Document C: Population Crisis: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Aid Expenditures of the Committee on Government Operations.

Further Reading.

14. Sex Change and the Popular Press: Historical Notes on Transsexuality in the United States, 1930-1955: Joanne Meyerowitz.

Document A: Girl Changes Into Man.

Document B: Psychopathia Transexualis: Dr. D. O. Cauldwell.

Document C: New Sex Switches: Behind the Sensational Headlines Loom Unpleasant Medical Facts.

Document D: Letter to the Editor of Sexology.

Further Reading.

Index.

English

"Elizabeth Reis's American Sexual Histories is a highly readable and utterly valuable resource for students and for the generally curious. This book traces the ever-changing fears, obsessions, and sometimes surprisingly tolerant attitudes Americans have held on the subject of sexual practice from the Puritans to 'liberation' in the late twentieth century." Nancy Isenberg, University of Tulsa

"American Sexual Histories is that all-too-rare achievement: a book of first-rate scholarship that encourages equally first-rate teaching. It is an extremely valuable book for students, teachers, and scholars." Peggy Pascoe, University of Oregon

"This is a wonderful resource. Reis's clear introductions, thought-provoking scholarly articles, and exciting primary sources combine to create an indispensable collection for undergraduate classes." Sharon Block, University of California, Irvine

"Each chapter starts with an easy-to-read, very clear introduction written by Reis which should serve as a helpful guide for students ... American Sexual Histories makes on reconsider what is 'natural' or 'normal' in certain historical periods. And it sends the message that sex has a history like everything else. H-NET

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