Attitudes Toward Sex in Antebellum America: A Brief History with Documents / Edition 1

by Helen Horowitz

Overview

Explore the diverse views which shaped the antebellum conversation about the moral, social, and physical implications of sex as Attitudes Toward Sex in Antebellum America uses these view to reflect the larger cultural and economic changes of this period of rapid industrialization and urban migration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312412265
Publisher:	Bedford/St. Martin's
Publication date:	02/06/2006
Series:	Bedford Cultural Editions Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.68(w) x 8.32(h) x 0.33(d)

About the Author

HELEN LEFKOWITZ HOROWITZ (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Sydenham Clark Parsons Professor in American Studies at Smith College. Her work in American history has explored cultural philanthropy, higher education, the American landscape, and sexuality. She has received fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute and was a Mellon Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society. Professor Horowitz is the author of The Power and Passion of M. Carey Thomas (1994), Alma Mater (1993), Culture and the City (1989), Campus Life (1988), and Rereading Sex(2002), which was the winner of the OAH Merle Curti Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history and for the Francis Parkman Prize.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface

A Note about the Cover
List of Illustrations

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION: Voices in the Sexual Conversation in Antebellum America
Voices in the Public Deliberation of Sex: The Four Frameworks
Controversy and Commerce
Coda: The Comstock Law of 1873

PART TWO
THE DOCUMENTS

1. Voices in the Sexual Conversation: The Four Frameworks
The First Framework: Vernacular Sexuality
1. From Aristotle’s Master-piece, 1741

The Second Framework: Evangelical Christianity
2. Lyman Beecher, From A Reformation of Morals Practicable and Indispensable, 1812, and From Resources of the Adversary and Means of their Destruction, 1827
3. Lyman Beecher, The Perils of Atheism to the Nation, 1830

The Third Framework: Reform Psychology
Freethinking
4. Frances Wright, Nashoba, Explanatory Notes, &c., Continued, February 6, 1828
5. Frances Wright, On the Nature of Knowledge, 1829
6. Robert Dale Owen, From Moral Physiology, 1831
7. Charles Knowlton, From Fruits of Philosophy, 1832

Christian Reform Psychology
8. Sylvester Graham, On the Science of Human Life, 1834

The Masturbation Scare
9. Sylvester Graham, On Self-Pollution, 1834
10. Luther V. Bell, M.D., From An Hours Conference with Fathers and Sons, 1840
11. Mary S. Gove [Nichols], From Solitary Vice, 1839
12. Charles Knowlton, Gonorrhoea Dormientium, August 10,1842

New Voices at Mid-Century
13. William Andrus Alcott, From The Physiology of Marriage, 1856
14. Lorenzo N. Fowler, From The Principles of Phrenology and Physiology Applied to Mans Social Relations, 1842
15. Lorenzo N. Fowler, From Marriage: Its History and Ceremonies, 1846
16. Orson S. Fowler, From Love and Parentage, 1851
17. Frederick Hollick, From The Origin of Life, 1845
18. Frederick Hollick, From The Marriage Guide, 1859

The Fourth Framework: Sex at the Center of Life
19. Thomas L. Nichols, M.D., From Esoteric Anthropology, 1854
20. Thomas L. Nichols and Mary S. Gove Nichols, From Marriage, 1854

2. Controversy and Commerce
Phase 1: The 1840s
21. Madame Restell, Advertisements, March 2, 1842
22. From The Magdalen Report, 1831
23. Sunday Flash, Lives of the Nymphs, No. 11: Amanda Green, October 17, 1841
24. Whip, Excerpts, July 9, 1842
25. Whip, Our Tenth Walk About Town; or, Nights in Gotham, December 24,1842
26. Whip, Sodomites, January 29, 1842
27. Flash, Our Indictments, December 11, 1841

Phase 2: The 1850s
28. P. F. Harris, Advertisement, February 19, 1855
29. George Thompson, From The Mysteries of Bond Street, 1857
30. Dr. J. Henry, Henrys Private Adviser, 1856
31. Julia Gaylove, Inez de Castro, May 23, 1857
32. Jean Rosseau, Advertisements, January 31, 1857

3. Coda: The Comstock Law of 1873

33. U.S. Congress, An Act for the Suppression of Trade

in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use, March 3, 1873

Appendixes
A Chronology of the Literature of Sexual Conversation in Antebellum America (1684–1873)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

“Rewriting Sex accomplishes two rarely-seen objectives in a history book. First, Horowitz takes old, well-traversed material and reformulates it into a startling and provocative new narrative…Second, and more impressively, she accomplishes this with an economy of words written in clear, crisp and easy-to-follow prose.”--Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Loyola University Chicago

“Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz’s volume is so welcome; it combines an unparalleled assortment of primary sources with a clear but sophisticated analysis of the social and cultural meanings of sex and sexual knowledge in antebellum era.”--Amy Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University

From the Publisher