Review: Sex in History
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsAfter first Food in History and then Flesh and Blood: A History of the Cannibal, why not? Tannahill doesn't pretend to theory or depth, offering instead ""the inclusion of Taoist sex manuals, Turkish eunuchs, ancient Greek dildoes, and Panamanian sodomites as adequate recompense for the omission of a certain amount of local or legal detail."" Well, it isn't. The text abounds in overstatements and unsupported assertions. Thus, while Tannahill sees an intellectual divergence (?) between the sexes during the neolithic revolution--with man becoming convinced of his superiority--in ancient Greece ""the hetairai, the educated courtesans, were still able to chalk up a feminine triumph over the pederasts."" But, as monotheism wins out and the Christian church takes over from Rome, it's just not fun anymore. Sex becomes a sin, homosexuality a threat to the state, marriage itself a difficult question with many church fathers sharing the sentiments of St. Jerome: ""I should like. . . every man to take a wife who cannot manage to sleep alone because he gets frightened at night."" Yet, by the twelfth century, Tannahill blithely sees signs for hope in the emergence of courtly love, and later delights in the 17th-century discovery that semen really does not contain ready-made babies after all: ""Woman became not an incubator, but a mother."" Further changes are noted down to the present day, all treated in an equally cursory manner (modern birth control gets 2« pages, modern feminism 1«). Summing up, Tannahill writes that man, now made responsible for his partner's satisfaction, ""began to lose his nerve."" Women themselves, however, fared little better: ""Some withdrew into lesbianism, others into work, and the majority into blockbuster novels where masterful passionate heroes could be relied on to bring a woman unerringly to ecstasy."" Too much and too little, and lots of it slapdash.
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Richard Hodkinson - GoodreadsExcellent and well-researched book, giving unusual and not-obvious reasons for the things we assume to be true about our sexual norms. And shows how they are both socially contingent and not ... Read full review
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Rosalie - Goodreadsan amazing resource when trying to understand sex throughout the ages. wonderfully written and entertaining to read. actually, a great book to curl up to and just marvel at history with. not for the ... Read full review
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Ann Evans - GoodreadsThis book was written some time ago, and more modern books have recently discovered information not available to Tannahill, but it is fascinating in that it debunks commonly held beliefs, and goes ... Read full review
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Sarah Magdalene - GoodreadsA surprisingly depressing tome which illustrates the fact that it is not our allegedly over sized brains that has caused all our millenia of misery, but the bits between our legs. Which is a fitting ... Read full review
Review: Sex in History
User Review - GoodreadsI registered a book at BookCrossing.com! http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11175783
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Tonsina - GoodreadsExcellent illustration of how it's done in other countries. The shame, the horror, the joy, the reality, what people really think about sex throughout the world and throughout time. No, it was not always taboo. Read full review
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Erik Graff - GoodreadsThis global survey of sexual beliefs and practices is written for the general public. Tannahill, a popular writer, seems to cover her bases well although there is a disproportionate amount of ... Read full review
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Sarah - GoodreadsIn reviewing Sex in History, I must admit to a certain sentimentality, as one tends to retain a fondness for half-contraband books read furtively in the parental basement. (But what twelve-year-old ... Read full review
Review: Sex in History
User Review - Sheila - GoodreadsThe title of the book is quite accurate, however, this book reads more like a college level cultural anthropology text than anything else. While sex of all sorts and variations is covered from the ... Read full review
