The Routledge History of Sex and the Body ─ 1500 to the Present

The Routledge History of Sex and the Body provides an overview of the main themes surrounding the history of sexuality from 1500 to the present day. The history of sex and the body is an expanding field in which vibrant debate on, for instance, the history of homosexuality, is developing. This book examines the current scholarship and looks towards future directions across the field.

The volume is divided into fourteen thematic chapters, which are split into two chronological sections 1500 – 1750 and 1750 to present day. Focusing on the history of sexuality and the body in the West but also interactions with a broader globe, these thematic chapters survey the major areas of debate and discussion. Covering themes such as science, identity, the gaze, courtship, reproduction, sexual violence and the importance of race, the volume offers a comprehensive view of the history of sex and the body. The book concludes with an afterword in which the reader is invited to consider some of the ‘tensions, problems and areas deserving further scrutiny’.

Including contributors renowned in their field of expertise, this ground-breaking collection is essential reading for all those interested in the history of sexuality and the body.

Sarah Toulalan is a senior lecture of the history of the body at the University of Exeter, UK. Her previous publications include, Bodies, sex and desire from the Renaissance to the Present co-edited with Kate Fisher (2011) and Imagining Sex: Pornography and Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England (2007).

Kate Fisher is a professor of the history of sexuality at the University of Exeter, UK. Her previous publications include, Bodies, sex and desire from the Renaissance to the Present co-edited with Sarah Toulalan (2011), Sex before the Sexual Revolution. Intimate Life in England 1918-1963 co-authored with Simon Szreter (2010) and Birth control, sex and marriage in Britain 1918-60 (2006).