The Facts of Life - Former Professor of the Social History of Medicine Wellcome Trust Centre for the

This remarkable book traces the development of sexual knowledge and guidance in Britain over three centuries. An absorbing, shocking, and often moving narrative, it investigates how views on sexual activities, sexual disorders, sexual pleasures, and sexual proprieties evolved through the years. Roy Porter and Lesley Hall explore the moral, religious, scientific, medical, domestic, social, and cultural backgrounds of various periods in which sexual information was received. They assess, for example, the impact of literature on sex on the legal regulation of prostitution, the control of contagious diseases, gender relations in and out of marriage, social purity movements, and social hygiene concerns. They describe the emergence of evolutionist and laboratory discourses on sexuality, the origins of sexual surveys, debates about marriage and free love, and associated revelations of personal sexual experiences. Examining texts that range from Nicolas Venette's Mysteries of Conjugal Love Reveal'd, written near the close of the seventeenth century, to Marie Stopes's Married Love, a famous tract of the twentieth century, Porter and Hall show how these texts established and authorized sexual knowledge and sexual practices. They describe the authors of these texts, their careers, and the motives for involvement in medico-moral campaigns that were often thought unsavory and commonly led to criticism and censure. Challenging and overturning common assumptions and historiographical traditions--from hoary myths of the Victorians to the work of Michel Foucault--the book adds a great deal to our understanding of the origins of sexual mores and knowledge.

Title: The Facts of Life

Sub Title: The Creation of Sexual Knowledge in Britain, 1650-1950

Author: Former Professor of the Social History of Medicine Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine Roy Porter, Roy Porter, Lesley A. Hall

Publisher: Yale University Press

Year: 1995

Number of pages: 415

ISBN: 9780300062212

Books are all in a used condition unless otherwise stated and may contain signs of wear and handling. Items are inspected before listing to ensure they are in an acceptable condition. Please ask questions if you need more details on an item's condition.

Books are shipped within one business day of checkout. If you select EFT as payment method, it may take somewhat longer for payment to reflect on our side before we are able to dispatch.

We offer Pargo Pickup (3-5 business days), local collection in Somerset West or Aramex door-to-door courier (1-2 business days). Shipping options can be selected at checkout.

We recommend Aramex courier as a fast no-contact delivery method available to all destinations within South Africa. Tracking number will be supplied once your shipment has been been processed.