Product Description

SEX IN HISTORY chronicles the pleasures- and perils- of the flesh from the time of mankind's distant ancestors to the modern day; from a sexual act which was bried, crude and purposeful, to the myriad varieties of contemporary sexual mores. Reay Tannahill's scholarly, yet accessible study ranges from the earliest form of contraception (one Egyptian concoction included crocodile dung) to some latter- day misconceptions about it- like the men who joined their lovers in taking the pill 'just to be on the safe side.' It surveys all manner of sexual practice, preference and position (the acrobatic 'wheelbarrow' position, the strenuous 'hovering butterflies' position...) and draws on souces as diverse as THE ADMIRABLE DISCOURSES OF THE PLAIN GIRL, the EXHIBTION OF FEMALE FLAGELLANTS, IMPORTANT MATTERS OF THE JADE CHAMBER and THE ROMANCE OF CHASTISEMENT. Whether writing on androgyny, courtly love, flagellation or zoophilia, Turkish eunuch's Greek dildoes, Taoist sex manuals or Japanses geisha girls, Reay Tannahill is consistently enlightening and entertaining.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #238117 in Books
• Published on: 1989-12-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
'Level-headed...diligent, provocative and fascinating. The book is the most complete of its kind ever written.' TIME 'Sanity on the subject of sex is all too rare; wit is in even shorter supply; and an engaging style is about as commonplace as eyebrows on an egg. Three cheers therefore, for Reay Tannahill.' WASHINGTON POST 'A shatteringly wide-ranging survey.' SUNDAY TIMES

About the Author
After a varied career, Reay Tannahill was asked to write a short illustrated history of Regency England. Then she wrote several books - both non-fiction and fiction. PASSING GLORY won the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year award. She died in December 2007.

Customer Reviews

A superb history of sex, repression and human nature.
Don't let the title mislead you. Reay Tannahill's Sex in History in neither a titillating nor a rude book. It is, however, a brilliant, fascinating, myth-dispelling and constantly revelatory read.

Starting in prehistory and moving (via the 1989 update) to the age of Aids, Tannahill examines the way in which socio-political and economic concerns have influenced sex and vice versa.

Spanning global history, from India, China and the Islamic world to the Americas and Europe, she looks at how attitudes have changed and developed. It soon becomes clear that nothing in sexual behaviour is new.

Her examination of Victorianism is excellent, and should be required reading for many - particularly those who nurture ideas of legislating the sex industry out of existence or restricting the availability of contraceptives and abortion. As a woman, it is particularly chilling to read how suffragettes and early feminists opposed moves toward contraception, and how birth-control information was often classed as "obscene" and outlawed. The consequences have been horrific.

That we still have a long way to go in terms of sexual liberation can well be illustrated by a statement from Chief Justice Warren Burger to the US Supreme Court as late as 1986, that, "to hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching."

But perhaps what comes across most clearly is the influence of religions on people's sexual behaviour. Indeed, as she says in her conclusion, religion and secular law in the West have "been productive of more guilt and misery among ordinary people than any other aspect of human or divine law."

There are, of course, things any reader would like to have seen included. For instance, when dealing with the British approach to Aids, a mention of former Chief Constable of Manchester James Anderton and his statements about God's plague on gays might have provided a useful illustration. And the story of German sex entrepreneur and contraceptive campaigner Beate Uhse would certainly not have been out of place.

But these are minor quibbles. A superb book, excellently written and highly readable. By turns funny, wry, appalling and surprising, with carefully and unemotionally drawn conclusions, Tannahill has produced a work that should be discovered by as many as possible.

sex in history, r.tannahill
The writter proves she knows her subject, with good pressentation of bibliography. A summary of human sexuality from prehistoric times to 1980. Special interest to me the chapters on contraceptive methods, contraceptive means of certain demographies etc. Excellent.

A gem!
A great book, beautifully written, very witty, very informative, very pleasurable do read. I strongly recommend!