The 19th Century saw intense urbanization, the development of a consumer culture, the formalization of gender roles, the solidification of class structures, and various encounters with the exotic customs of the colonies – all of which contributed to enhance sexual anxiety among the middle classes. In response, new social conventions, sanitary prescriptions, practices of self-control, and policies of sex regulation and education were developed as a means to control disorderly sexual behavior. At the same time, though an ideology based on sexual respectability was largely promoted throughout society, significant individuals and subcultures often challenged both the principle and the practice of such morality. A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Age of Empire presents an overview of the period with essays on heterosexuality, homosexuality, sexual variations, religious and legal issues, health concerns, popular beliefs about sexuality, prostitution and erotica.

A Cultural History of Sexuality presents an overarching survey from ancient times to the present. With six volumes covering 2800 years, this is the most authoritative history of sexuality in all its many forms across Western cultures. Volume 1: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical World Edited by Mark Golden, University of Winnipeg, and Peter Toohey, University of Calgary Volume 2: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Middle Ages Edited by Ruth Evans, Saint Louis University Volume 3: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Renaissance Edited by Bette Talvacchia, University of Connecticut Volume 4: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Enlightenment Edited by Julie Peakman, Birkbeck College, University of London Volume 5: Sexuality in the Age of Empire Edited by Chiara Beccalossi, University of Queensland, Australia, and Ivan Crozier, University of Edinburgh Volume 6: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Modern Age Gert Hekma, University of Amsterdam Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: 1. Heterosexuality; 2. Homosexuality; 3. Sexual Variations; 4. Sex Religion, and the Law; 5. Sex, Medicine and Disease; 6. Sex, Popular Beliefs and Culture; 7. Prostitution; 8. Erotica. This means readers can either have a broad overview of a period by reading a volume or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

A Cultural History of Sexuality presents an overarching survey from ancient times to the present. With six volumes covering 2800 years, this is the most authoritative history of sexuality in all its many forms across Western cultures. Volume 1: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical World Edited by Mark Golden, University of Winnipeg, and Peter Toohey, University of Calgary Volume 2: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Middle Ages Edited by Ruth Evans, Saint Louis University Volume 3: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Renaissance Edited by Bette Talvacchia, University of Connecticut Volume 4: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Enlightenment Edited by Julie Peakman, Birkbeck College, University of London Volume 5: Sexuality in the Age of Empire Edited by Chiara Beccalossi, University of Queensland, Australia, and Ivan Crozier, University of Edinburgh Volume 6: A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Modern Age Gert Hekma, University of Amsterdam Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: 1. Heterosexuality; 2. Homosexuality; 3. Sexual Variations; 4. Sex Religion, and the Law; 5. Sex, Medicine and Disease; 6. Sex, Popular Beliefs and Culture; 7. Prostitution; 8. Erotica. This means readers can either have a broad overview of a period by reading a volume or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

"Sexual cultures have changed enormously in the 20th Century. We have greater sexual equality than ever before and homosexuality has shifted from being a crime, a sin, and a disease to an acknowledged and sometimes legally sanctioned variation. However, many sexual practices remain controversial, even demonized. The sexual revolution, psychoanalysis, changes in the law, medical advances, and the explosion of sexual imagery in the media have all contributed to a liberalization of sex. At the same time, Western cultures continue to think about sexuality as a desire shaped by nature, as of greater interest to men than women, as private, and as shaped by love. A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Modern Age presents an overview of the period with essays on heterosexuality, homosexuality, sexual variations, religious and legal issues, health concerns, popular beliefs about sexuality, prostitution and erotica."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Sexuality is one of the most influential factors in human life. The responses to and reflections upon the manifestations of sexuality provide fascinating insights into fundamental aspects of medieval and early-modern culture. This interdisciplinary volume with articles written by social historians, literary historians, musicologists, art historians, and historians of religion and mental-ity demonstrates how fruitful collaborative efforts can be in the exploration of essential features of human society. Practically every aspect of culture both in the Middle Ages and the early modern age was influenced and determined by sexuality, which hardly ever surfaces simply characterized by prurient interests. The treatment of sexuality in literature, chronicles, music, art, legal documents, and in scientific texts illuminates central concerns, anxieties, tensions, needs, fears, and problems in human society throughout times.

"Humans have always had sex. But look through the keyhole of history and you will see they have not always had sex in the same manner, with the same kinds of people or with the same beliefs about whether what they are doing is right or desirable.” So writes Charlie McCann in this fascinating study of sex and sexuality through the ages. Beginning with the world of antiquity and ending with the present, she traces our changing attitudes to our bodies and what we do with them, conducting us on a tour which takes in the gymnasiums of ancient Greece, where men seduced boys, to the caves occupied by Christian ascetics, to the fashionable drawing rooms of Georgian London, where libertines hunted for women to prey on, and the clubs of Weimar Berlin, where lesbians debated the nature of their desire. Nowadays, in Europe and North America, the way we think about sexuality is a fundamental part of our identity. To a greater extent than ever, we are defined by our sexual preferences. Sexuality matters more than it ever has before. We need to understand it to understand ourselves.