Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)"Sex and the Gender Revolution" is superb on in its well-argued synthesis of voluminous archival sources.
The posted review from "Booklist" ***mistakenly*** assumes that Professor Trumbach fails to perform a synthesis of the evidence in this dazzlingly authoritative book.
I don't know how anyone in their right mind could come to such a conclusion after seriously and carefully reading this book. (The word "careful" will come up again in my review as I believe this is what is lacking in many people's examination of deep scholarship such as this book.)
The "Booklist" reviewer also makes a curious claim about empiricism. Ha! In an age where newer modes of scholarship about gender and sexuality often retreats into theoretical claims without firsthand evidence and primary sources; in an age of where these newer modes are often more about polemics than syntheses of specific evidence, we surely need Professor Trumbach's (I do not know him) far-reaching arguments *about* his evidence.
This book is the first in a series that treats the same topic: that is, the furious cross-institutional resistance to rising compulsory heterosexuality in 18th century (etc.) London--a resistance informed by previous bouts of sexual diversity among men, women, young boys, and so forth; a resistance contested by even more rising male dominance and violence towards women.
May I suggest that the definitive review of this book is Deborah Valenze's careful discussion in the Winter 2000 edition of the Journal of Social History.
A careful and generous reader will realize right away the extreme value of Professor Trumbach's excavation for generations to come.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Sex and the Gender Revolution, Volume 1: Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society)
A revolution in gender relations occurred in London around 1700, resulting in a sexual system that endured in many aspects until the sexual revolution of the 1960s. For the first time in European history, there emerged three genders: men, women, and a third gender of adult effeminate sodomites, or homosexuals. This third gender had radical consequences for the sexual lives of most men and women since it promoted an opposing ideal of exclusive heterosexuality.In Sex and the Gender Revolution, Randolph Trumbach reconstructs the worlds of eighteenth-century prostitution, illegitimacy, sexual violence, and adultery. In those worlds the majority of men became heterosexuals by avoiding sodomy and sodomite behavior.As men defined themselves more and more as heterosexuals, women generally experienced the new male heterosexuality as its victims. But women--as prostitutes, seduced servants, remarrying widows, and adulterous wives-- also pursued passion. The seamy sexual underworld of extramarital behavior was central not only to the sexual lives of men and women, but to the very existence of marriage, the family, domesticity, and romantic love. London emerges as not only a geographical site but as an actor in its own right, mapping out domains where patriarchy, heterosexuality, domesticity, and female resistance take vivid form in our imaginations and senses.As comprehensive and authoritative as it is eloquent and provocative, this book will become an indispensable study for social and cultural historians and delightful reading for anyone interested in taking a close look at sex and gender in eighteenth-century London.
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