Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulations of Sexuality Since 1800

Front Cover
Routledge, May 22, 2014 - History - 464 pages

A pioneering study which has become an established classic in its field, Sex, Politics and Society provides a lucid and comprehensive analysis of the transformations of British sexual life from 1800 to the present. These changes are firmly located in the wider context of social change, from industrialization and the experience of Empire through the establishment of the welfare state to the rise of new social movements, such as feminism and gay liberation, and new forms of social conservatism.

Now fully revised and updated, and with a new chapter bringing the story right up to date, this new edition considers:

  • the transformation of the sexual world through globalization and the internet
  • the changing impact of the AIDS pandemic over the last thirty years
  • the influence of new currents in social and cultural theory on the study of sexuality
  • the gradual depoliticization and mainstreaming of sexuality within historical study

Combining rich empirical detail with innovative theoretical insights, Sex, Politics and Society remains at the cutting edge of the subject and this third edition will inspire and provoke a whole new generation of readers in history, sociology, social policy, and the study of sexuality.

 

Contents

1 Sexuality and the historian
1
sexuality in Victorian ideology
27
middleclass men women and children
47
4 Sexuality and the labouring classes
71
moral regulation in the Victorian period
100
6 The construction of homosexuality
119
7 The population question in the early twentieth century
158
8 The theorisation of sex
182
10 Sex psychology and birth control
231
11 Towards a conservative modernity
254
12 The state and sexuality
296
13 The permissive moment
321
14 Personal politics and moral conservatism
357
15 A new world?
391
Index
427
Copyright

9 Feminism and socialism
205

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