Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in AmericaThe first full length study of the history of sexuality in America, Intimate Matters offers trenchant insights into the sexual behavior of Americans, from colonial times to today. D'Emilio and Freedman give us a deeper understanding of how sexuality has dramatically influenced politics and culture throughout our history. "The book John D'Emilio co-wrote with Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters, was cited by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy when, writing for a majority of court on July 26, he and his colleagues struck down a Texas law criminalizing sodomy. The decision was widely hailed as a victory for gay rights—and it derived in part, according to Kennedy's written comments, from the information he gleaned from D'Emilio's book, which traces the history of American perspectives on sexual relationships from the nation's founding through the present day. The justice mentioned Intimate Matters specifically in the court's decision."—Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune "Fascinating. . . . [D'Emilio and Freedman] marshall their material to chart a gradual but decisive shift in the way Americans have understood sex and its meaning in their lives." —Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times Book Review "With comprehensiveness and care . . . D'Emilio and Freedman have surveyed the sexual patterns for an entire nation across four centuries." —Martin Bauml Duberman, Nation "Intimate Matters is comprehensive, meticulous and intelligent." —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World "This book is remarkable. . . . [Intimate Matters] is bound to become the definitive survey of American sexual history for years to come." —Roy Porter, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences |
Contents
Cultural Diversity in the Era of Settlement | 3 |
Family Life and the Regulation of Deviance | 15 |
Seeds of Change | 39 |
Within the Family | 55 |
Race and Sexuality | 85 |
Outside the Family | 109 |
Sexual Politics | 139 |
Civilized Morality Under Stress | 171 |
Crusades for Sexual Order | 202 |
Breaking with the Past | 222 |
THE RISE AND FALL OF SEXUAL LIBERALISM | 237 |
Redrawing the Boundaries | 275 |
Sexual Revolutions | 301 |
The Sexualized Society | 326 |
The Contemporary Political Crisis | 344 |
Common terms and phrases
abortion American Anthony Comstock became birth control black women brothels campaign church cities colonies Comstock contraception couples court courtship culture dance decade Despite divorce doctors early economic England erotic experience feminists fertility free love free lovers gay liberation gender girls groups heterosexual homosexual husband ideal illegitimacy Indian intercourse interracial intimacy Kinsey labor laws lesbians lived lynching male marital marriage married married couples middle middle-class movement nineteenth century obscenity orgasm parents partners passion percent physical pleasure political pornography practice pregnancy premarital prostitution Puritan racial radical rape rates red-light districts regulation relationships reproduction role romantic same-sex Sanger sexual activity sexual behavior sexual desire sexual expression sexual intercourse sexual liberalism sexual relations sexual values slavery slaves social purity social purity movement society sodomy southern tion unions urban venereal disease white women wife wives woman working-class wrote York young youth
Popular passages
Page 401 - Mary P. Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790-1865 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981); Nancy A.
Page 405 - Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love between Women from the Renaissance to the Present (New York: William Morrow, 1981).