European Sexualities, 1400–1800

A pioneering survey of the social and cultural history of sexuality in early modern Europe.

Katherine Crawford (Author)

9780521548403, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 January 2007

258 pages, 12 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

'… a welcome addition to the study of Western civilization.' Gwendolyn Morgan, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Sexual behaviour [JMU], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]