Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Informative
Review: Intimate Matters provides a comprehensive analysis of the history of sexuality in America through an engaging and thoughtful narrative. It is useful for the professional historian--it is well documented with references to existing historical literature on the topic (although it is not original research). However, it also will prove very interesting to the casual reader.

The book itself provides a broad descriptive introduction to the history of sexuality and reproduction from the colonial era to the present, but also presents a clear argument that is easy to follow. The authors claim that sexuality in America has gone through three distinct phases, from family governed sexuality in the colonial era, to privatized but conservative sexuality in the nineteenth century, to our era of comparative sexual freedom, often governed by consumerist values, in the twentieth century. Beyond that, it is simply fun to read.

The book does use language that might be considered objectionable by some, but these words are quoted directly from contemporary historical sources. They help to give an honest impression of the way sexuality was discussed in the past. It is a very good book.

Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as interesting as one would think
Review: The book reads very textbook-y, and already that's one strike against it. There were a few interesting things, like bundling beds and the fact that Pilgrims thought that women had to climax to conceive but other than that, nothing too insightful about sex.