This is a major new survey of the social and cultural history of sexuality in early modern Europe. Within a frame that includes the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment, it weaves together statistical findings, discussions of changing sexual ideology, and evidence of belief structures regarding family, religion, science, crime, and deviance. While broad in overall scope and coverage, the transformations are framed to highlight the narrative of change over time within each domain. By emphasizing the interrelationship between practices and ideological change - in family form, religious organization, medical logic, legal structures, and notions of deviancy - Katherine Crawford's accessible survey reveals how these changes produced the conditions in which our modern notions of sexuality were developed. This book will be essential reading for students of early modern European history and the history of sexuality.
Contents
Introduction; 1. Marriage and the family: the nexus of the sexual; 2. Religion and sexuality; 3. The science of sex; 4. Sex and crime; 5. Deviancy and the cultures of sex; Conclusion: regimes of sexuality.
Reviews
"Recommended." - Choice
"This book is a welcome addition to the current renaissance of historical interest in sexuality.... A book devoted mainly to debates among historians and summaries of their views could rapidly become tedious, but the extensive quotation from primary sources, mainly in English and French, gives these pages a sparkle. Crawford has read extensively in the literature of the day, and she wears her knowledge in a convincing and unpedantic manner." - Journal of Interdisciplinary History
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