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A01=Rebecca L. Davis
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Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America

English

By (author): Rebecca L. Davis

Our era is one of sexual upheaval. Roe v. Wade was overturned in the summer of 2022, school systems across the country are banning books with LGBTQ+ themes, and the notion of a tradwife is gaining adherents on the right while polyamory wins converts on the left. It may seem as though debates over sex are more intense than ever, but as acclaimed historian Rebecca L. Davis demonstrates in Fierce Desires, we should not be too surprised, because Americans have been arguing over which kinds of sex are acceptableand which are notsince before the founding itself.

From the public floggings of fornicators in early New England to passionate same-sex love affairs in the 1800s and the crackdown on abortion providers in the 1870s, and from the movements for sexual liberation to the recent restrictions on access to gender affirming care, Davis presents a sweeping, engrossing, illuminating four-hundred-year account of this nations sexual past. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including legal records, erotica, and eighteenth-century romance novels, she recasts important episodesAnthony Comstocks crusade against smut among themand, at the same time, unearths stories of little-remembered pioneers and iconoclasts, such as an indentured servant in colonial Virginia named Thomas/Thomasine Hall, Gay Liberation Front cofounder Kiyoshi Kuromiya, and postwar female pleasure activist Betty Dodson.

At the heart of the book is Daviss argument that the concept of sexual identity is relatively novel, first appearing in the nineteenth century. Over the centuries, Americans have shifted from understanding sexual behaviors as reflections of personal preferences or values, such as those rooted in faith or culture, to defining sexuality as an essential part of what makes a person who they are. And at every step, legislators, police, activists, and bureaucrats attempted to regulate new sexual behaviors, transforming government in the process.

The most comprehensive account of Americas sexual past since John DEmilio and Estelle Freedmans 1988 classic, Intimate Matters, Daviss magisterial work seeks to help us understand the turmoil of the present. It demonstrates how fiercely we have always valued our desires, and how far we are willing to go to defend them.

 

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Original price €34.99
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A01=Rebecca L. DavisAge Group_UncategorizedAuthor_Rebecca L. Davisautomatic-updateCategory1=Non-FictionCategory=HBJKCategory=HBTBCategory=JFFCategory=JMUCOP=United StatesDelivery_Pre-orderLanguage_EnglishPA=Not yet availablePrice_€20 to €50PS=Forthcomingsoftlaunch

Will deliver when available. Publication date 03 Sep 2024

Product Details
  • Weight: 759g
  • Dimensions: 160 x 239mm
  • Publication Date: 03 Sep 2024
  • Publisher: WW Norton & Co
  • Publication City/Country: United States
  • Language: English
  • ISBN13: 9781631496578

About Rebecca L. Davis

Rebecca L. Davis is professor of history at the University of Delaware and author of Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics and More Perfect Unions: The American Search for Marital Bliss. She lives in Swarthmore Pennsylvania.

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