More Readings on Sexuality
Sex in History (1980) Reay Tannahill Art Nouveau and the Erotic (2000) Ghislaine Wood Sex in History is over forty years old but still provides an informed, often wry, and certainly intelligent review of the history of sexuality. It is a first point of call for anyone new to the subject who is looking to understand how we became what we are both as a culture and as individuals (at least in the West). Tannahill's judgement is excellent, given the facts at her disposal. I strongly approve of her refusal to take at face value any later imposition of theory on how minds worked in the past. We can know nothing of past thoughts. The Freudianism that was still regarded as respectable when she was writing the book is now seen for what it is - another 'grand projet' from comfortably off dead white males and their camp-followers. It gets only a couple of mentions and then with not much respect. Good! She is also not sentimental. The Amerindians may have been treated appal...