Riotous Flesh


Book Description

The claim that masturbation isn t good for you didn t just come out of nowhere. As April Haynes shows, a range of feminist reformers in nineteenth century America all agreed that the solitary vice caused untold suffering and death; that women and girls masturbated as frequently as did men and boys; that they did so because they lacked access to sexual information; and that therefore, female sex education would save lives. Haynes, in short shows that nascent feminists remade what might have been a puritanical crusade into a basis for envisioning their own sexual self-masterywith mixed results, for Haynes also tells the story of how, before the advent of sexology or even the professionalization of medicine, a great silent army of evangelical female reformers first popularized, then institutionalized, the normative sexual discourse of the nineteenth century."




Maternal Bodies


Book Description

In the second half of the eighteenth century, motherhood came to be viewed as women's most important social role, and the figure of the good mother was celebrated as a moral force in American society. Nora Doyle shows that depictions of motherhood in American culture began to define the ideal mother by her emotional and spiritual roles rather than by her physical work as a mother. As a result of this new vision, lower-class women and non-white women came to be excluded from the identity of the good mother because American culture defined them in terms of their physical labor. However, Doyle also shows that childbearing women contradicted the ideal of the disembodied mother in their personal accounts and instead perceived motherhood as fundamentally defined by the work of their bodies. Enslaved women were keenly aware that their reproductive bodies carried a literal price, while middle-class and elite white women dwelled on the physical sensations of childbearing and childrearing. Thus motherhood in this period was marked by tension between the lived experience of the maternal body and the increasingly ethereal vision of the ideal mother that permeated American print culture.




Against Sex


Book Description

How much sex should a person have? With whom? What do we make of people who choose not to have sex at all? As present as these questions are today, they were subjects of intense debate in the early American republic. In this richly textured history, Kara French investigates ideas about, and practices of, sexual restraint to better understand the sexual dimensions of American identity in the antebellum United States. French considers three groups of Americans—Shakers, Catholic priests and nuns, and followers of sexual reformer Sylvester Graham—whose sexual abstinence provoked almost as much social, moral, and political concern as the idea of sexual excess. Examining private diaries and letters, visual culture and material artifacts, and a range of published works, French reveals how people practicing sexual restraint became objects of fascination, ridicule, and even violence in nineteenth-century American culture. Against Sex makes clear that in assessing the history of sexuality, an expansive view of sexual practice that includes abstinence and restraint can shed important new light on histories of society, culture, and politics.




Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary on the Whole Bible, Deluxe Edition


Book Description

This is the Deluxe Edition of Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary. It is a verse-by-verse account of the Bible with great scholarly insight and attention to the historic teachings of Orthodox Christianity. It has great attention to detail, while bringing clarity to the full meaning and inferences of words, verses, and passages, offering an in-depth understanding of the Bible. Though detailed, it is not overly technical, making it one of the core books for ministers and laity alike. This four volume set is well known for its scholarship and accurate understanding of the Scriptures. C. H. Spurgeon’s opinion of the work was so great that he said, "It contains so great a variety of information that if a man had no other exposition he would find himself at no great loss if he possessed and used it diligently." Some of its key features are: - An introduction to each book of the Bible supplying a complete summary of the context - An in-depth understanding of the original biblical languages making comparison to modern language easy - Extensive cross-referencing throughout the text linking passages and their meanings - Exposition of words and phrases in boldface enabling quick definition - An easy to follow format Published by Delmarva Publications, this handsome one volume, has all of the 9 volumes of the commentary included. It has an easy to read typeface and includes a well-organized layout providing ease of transition from passage to passage. Its interior style matches its cover providing continuity and an attractive combination. All volumes have a linked table of contents to help you quickly and easily navigate to your desired scripture. It has been proofread many times to make it one of the most accurate e-text versions available.










The Lady Meets Her Match


Book Description

This self-made man has met his match Wealthy bachelor Cyrus Ryland usually commands respect—except for the mysterious beauty he meets at his masked ball. A night of flirtation and dancing should soften her, but when the clock strikes midnight, the lady vanishes, leaving behind a single shoe. Because this Cinderella doesn’t want her shoe back Cyrus is sure he’s been duped and vows to scour all of London to find her. Little does he know that not only does independent shopkeeper Claire Mayhew not want to be found, but she wants nothing to do with him at all...







The Transformation of American Sex Education


Book Description

"This book examines Americans' attempts to come to terms with the vexed subject of sex education in the schools from the late 1940s to the early 21st century. Using Mary Calderone's life and career as a touchstone, it traces the origins of modern sex education in the United States from the work of a group of reformers who coalesced around Calderone to create SIECUS in 1964 through the development and use of the competing approaches known as 'abstinence-based' and 'comprehensive' sex education from the 1980s into the 21st century"--