Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-Century History

✍ Scribed by Dagmar Herzog

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 240
• Series: New Approaches to European History
• Edition: Reissue
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This original book brings a fascinating and accessible new account of the tumultuous history of sexuality in Europe from the waning of Victorianism to the collapse of Communism and the rise of European Islam. Although the twentieth century is often called "the century of sex" and seen as an era of increasing liberalization, Dagmar Herzog instead emphasizes the complexities and contradictions in sexual desires and behaviours, the ambivalences surrounding sexual freedom, and the difficulties encountered in securing sexual rights. Incorporating the most recent scholarship on a broad range of conceptual problems and national contexts, the book investigates the shifting fortunes of marriage and prostitution, contraception and abortion, queer and straight existence. It analyzes sexual violence in war and peace, the promotion of sexual satisfaction in fascist and democratic societies, the role of eugenics and disability, the politicization and commercialization of sex, and processes of secularization and religious renewal.

✦ Table of Contents

Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Illustrations......Page 9
Introduction......Page 11
1 Reconceiving sexuality 1900–1914......Page 16
Prostitution, venereal disease, and the double standard......Page 17
For and against regulation......Page 20
Theorizing desire......Page 25
Separating sex from reproduction: contraception and abortion......Page 28
Eugenics......Page 34
The beginnings of sex reform......Page 37
Rethinking sexual orientation......Page 38
The concept of homosexuality......Page 41
Activism, scandals, identities......Page 45
Further reading......Page 51
World War I and its aftermath: violence and opportunity......Page 55
Gender relations in the interwar period......Page 60
Sex reform goes transnational......Page 63
Pursuing pleasure......Page 66
Fascism: masculinism and reproduction......Page 71
Vichy France and Franco's Spain......Page 73
Ambiguities of Italian fascism......Page 75
Nazism: human engineering and the promise of pleasure......Page 77
Democratic welfare states: liberality and ambivalence......Page 85
Eugenics in democratic nations......Page 92
Holocaust and World War II......Page 93
Battlefields and occupied territories......Page 96
Fraternization and propaganda......Page 100
Further reading......Page 104
Mass violence and the return to domesticity......Page 106
Conservatism, east and west......Page 110
The rise of romance......Page 116
Ambivalence about contraception......Page 121
The persecution of homosexuals......Page 127
Strategies of resistance......Page 129
The rise of reform......Page 132
Further reading......Page 141
4 Pleasure and rebellion 1965–1980......Page 143
The market of desire......Page 144
The pill......Page 146
Porn......Page 149
Revolutionary theories......Page 156
Changing the law......Page 162
Abortion rights......Page 166
Heterosexual disillusionment......Page 171
Domestic violence and rape......Page 175
Homosexual liberation......Page 178
The turn inward......Page 182
Further reading......Page 184
5 Partnerships and practices 1980–2010......Page 186
HIV/AIDS......Page 187
The fall of communism......Page 193
Crossing borders: prostitution and marriage......Page 197
Resisting Westernization......Page 199
The return of war rapes......Page 204
Postfascist lessons in human rights......Page 205
Islam and the sexual borders of Europe......Page 208
Romantic liberality versus new conservatisms......Page 215
Clergy abuse......Page 219
Disability rights/womens rights......Page 222
Further reading......Page 225
Epilogue......Page 228
Acknowledgments......Page 232
Index......Page 234