Primers for Prudery: Sexual Advice to Victorian America

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In Primers for Prudery Ronald G. Walters examines the historical and social context as well as the substance of sexual advice manuals in nineteenth-century America. Allowing the authors of these manuals to speak for themselves—with generous excerpts by contemporary authorities on subjects ranging from the virtues of celibacy to the vices of masturbation—Walters offers his readers a complex reading of the Victorian "prudery" referred to in the book's title. Supplementing each of the excerpts with extensive ...

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1974 Hardcover 1st Edition Good plus in Good jacket 1st Printing. Clean black cloth boards, light wear. A few ink markings on flyleaf and endpapers are lighlty soiled and acid ... toned. Else, text is clean, unmarked. Tightly bound. Jacket is shelfworn with edgewear and wrinkling. Not ex-library. Read more Show Less

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1974-01-01 Hardcover Good 175 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections.

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Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1974 Hardcover 1st Near Fine. Dust Jacket Included Book ISBN: 0-13-700922-4. Indexed. Chapters: perfecting the race, marriage, the welcome child, etc. near ... fine, vg+ chipped dj, black bds. Clean text. Tight 175 pgs. Read more Show Less

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Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1974 Hardcover 1st Printing Very Good in Good jacket Academic, Scholarly, Research. 8vo-over 7?"-9?" tall. 175 pp. Solidly bound copy and dj with moderate ... external wear. Crisp pages and clean text. Wear on jacket corners, small tear on jacket flap, minimal foxing on page edges. Read more Show Less

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Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1974 Hard Cover First Edition Good in Good jacket Ex-Library Black 6"x8" hardcover in a green dustjacket. ex-library markings, front endpaper ... excised. 175 pages. includes selections from 19th century sex manuals, medical journals, and homemaking guides, what people today would find humorous or horrifying. tight, solid copy. Read more Show Less

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1973 Hardcover Prentice Hall; Very Good-in Very Good dust jacket 0137009224. Lightly worn boards in like dust jacket.; 8vo; 175 pages.

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More About This Book

Overview

In Primers for Prudery Ronald G. Walters examines the historical and social context as well as the substance of sexual advice manuals in nineteenth-century America. Allowing the authors of these manuals to speak for themselves—with generous excerpts by contemporary authorities on subjects ranging from the virtues of celibacy to the vices of masturbation—Walters offers his readers a complex reading of the Victorian "prudery" referred to in the book's title. Supplementing each of the excerpts with extensive commentary, he places the advice manuals in the larger setting of gender and class issues.

First published in 1974, Primers for Prudery now returns to print in a paperback edition with new selections from women's advice to women and a new preface in which Walters discusses changes that have occurred in the scholarship on sexuality since the book's first publication. He also provides an updated bibliographical note.

The Johns Hopkins University Press

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Editorial Reviews

Booknews
Walters (history, Johns Hopkins University) considers the gender and class politics of 19th-century sexual advice manuals. Quoting extensively from the manuals themselves, he offers readers a taste of old-fashioned prudery, supplemented by his own commentary and critical analysis. A new preface discusses the changes in scholarship on sexuality since the book was first published by Johns Hopkins U. Press in 1974. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
American Quarterly

Walters warns that by today's standards, the advice may appear naive, even ludicrous. Nevertheless, he urges us to put aside our smug presentism. The Victorians were not the wretched victims of sexual repression we may imagine. Rather they were women and men who found in restrictive sexual codes something of value appropriate to their lives. Why else would the repressive codes have endured so long?

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780137009220
  • Publisher: Prentice Hall
  • Publication date: 1/1/1973
  • Pages: 175

Meet the Author

Ronald G. Walters is a professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of American Reformers: 1815-1860 and The Antislavery Appeal: American Abolitionism after 1830 and editor of Scientific Authority in Twentieth-Century America (available from Johns Hopkins).

The Johns Hopkins University Press

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