Awards
- Winner of Winner of the 2004 Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Award for the most distinguished book written for the professional sexological community.
Overview
In this book Hera Cook traces the path of sexuality in England, and shows how its route was determined by the gradual exertion of control over fertility. Most sexual activity had major economic and social costs, the most fundamental of which was the physical cost of children upon women's bodies. Around 1800 birth rates reached historical heights. Using a combination of demographic and qualitative sources, Dr Cook examines the connection between the struggle to lower fertility and the increasing repression of sexuality throughout the nineteenth century. Contraception became a viable option in the early twentieth century. The book charts the resulting slow relaxation of attitudes to sexuality and the remaking of heterosexual physical behaviour, culminating in the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Full Product Details
Author: Hera Cook (Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Sydney)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.00cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 23.90cm
Weight: 0.737kg
ISBN: 9780199252398
ISBN 10: 0199252394
Pages: 426
Publication Date: 05 February 2004
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Hera Cook's study of English Women, sex and contraception, is a welcome reminder of the struggle for sexual reform...a book full of useful information. Shaile Rowbotham, The English Historical Review This is an admirable book ... It is refreshing to find a monograph that is soundly researched, logically argued, and women-centered, on, of all subjects, women and sex. Judith S. Lewis, Journal of Social History ...a fascinating examination of sexual attitudes, practices, discourses and debates ... Expressed clearly but subtly, and clinically but sensitively, with many original insights and provocative explanations. M.L. Bush, History This is an ambitious and genuinely challenging book...[it] represents a productive intervention in ongoing debates in the history of sexuality. We would do well to take up the challenges posed by Hera Cook's work. Matt Houlbrook, History Workshop Journal Cook's compelling and convincing conclusions will reshape our understanding of nineteenth and twentieth-century sexuality. It is a refreshing challenge and essential reading. Anna Clark, American Historical Review Cook has written an ambitious and wide-ranging study of the type that is too sadly uncommon in today's publishing climate. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, Vol. 36 ...a new interpretation of heterosexual practices in the nineteenth century that challenges existing analyses...Cook offers an instructive point of departure for historians of sexuality. Rebecca Gill, Metascience, Vol. 16
Hera Cook's study of English Women, sex and contraception, is a welcome reminder of the struggle for sexual reform...a book full of useful information. Shaile Rowbotham, The English Historical Review This is an admirable book ... It is refreshing to find a monograph that is soundly researched, logically argued, and women-centered, on, of all subjects, women and sex. Judith S. Lewis, Journal of Social History ...a fascinating examination of sexual attitudes, practices, discourses and debates ... Expressed clearly but subtly, and clinically but sensitively, with many original insights and provocative explanations. M.L. Bush, History This is an ambitious and genuinely challenging book...[it] represents a productive intervention in ongoing debates in the history of sexuality. We would do well to take up the challenges posed by Hera Cook's work. Matt Houlbrook, History Workshop Journal Cook's compelling and convincing conclusions will reshape our understanding of nineteenth and twentieth-century sexuality. It is a refreshing challenge and essential reading. Anna Clark, American Historical Review Cook has written an ambitious and wide-ranging study of the type that is too sadly uncommon in today's publishing climate. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, Vol. 36 ...a new interpretation of heterosexual practices in the nineteenth century that challenges existing analyses...Cook offers an instructive point of departure for historians of sexuality. Rebecca Gill, Metascience, Vol. 16
