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The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution Paperback – International Edition, March 26, 2013

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Faramerz Dabhoiwala (Author)
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4.0 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 496 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (July 31, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0241955963
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241955963
  • Product Dimensions: 5 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsThorough study on the origins of sexuality in our modern Western culture
By Henk-Jan van der Klis on April 21, 2012
Format: Hardcover
In The Origins of Sex, dr. Faramerz Dabhoiwala (fellow & tutor in history, Exeter College Oxford) provides a thorough study on the origins of sexuality in our modern Western culture. For millennia, sex had been strictly regulated by the Church, the state, and society. Until the 17th century harsh punishments were given to men and women that had sex outside of marriage. But by the 19th century everything had changed. And for us, 21st century westerners sexuality is so woven into our culture, literature, television programmes, ads en ethics, that most of us even think about alternatives.
Dabhoiwala has done a lot of research from laws, court cases, novels, pornography, history, paintings and diaries and letters, that illustrate the changing opinions on sexuality.

The most basic modern novelty was a perennial indeterminacy about the limits of sexual freedom. In place of a relatively coherent, authoritative world view that had endured for centuries, the Enlightenment left a much greater confusion and plurality of moral perspectives, with irresolvable tensions between them. At a basic level, attitudes after 1800 evolved in two contrasting ways. On the one hand we can trace continued, or even tightened, social control over various forms of sexual behaviour. Though the machinery of public punishment had been largely abandoned, its ideals were not. Against this backdrop of apparent national decline and social upheaval, the importance of religious faith and of social conservatism came to be widely reaffirmed: only by going back to basics would the nation find its way again. For women of all classes, sexual ignorance and passivity came increasingly to be valued as essential components of respectable femininity and heterosexual love.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsBeautifully explores sex and its revolution
By Vivek Tejuja on February 5, 2013
Format: Hardcover
Sex should not be spoken about in our country or that's what it seems. In a country like India, where most things are taboo, the one that tops the list is sex and its talk. Sex I think on a very generic level has been taboo in most countries and most places before they woke up and were so-called "liberated" by the idea of talking about it and not being ashamed or shy. At the same time, it is all about the action and ironically so as I was reading "The Origins of Sex" by Faramerz Dabhoiwala I was amazed at what happened in the fifteenth century to those who had sex outside the marriage and also without being married. The revelation at times was so much to handle and yet the book is so relevant for our times (in some parts).

"The Origins of Sex" is not an easy read. At the same time, it is not difficult either. One has to shed all inhibitions while reading, more so because of the anecdotes. The reason I say this is I remember last month when attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, one of the sessions was by Faramerz Dabhoiwala who spoke for an hour about sex and how it was treated in the Western culture till sexual revolution came to being. At one point he spoke of something highly relevant to men those times - a kind of club where they would meet and ejaculate together after being aroused by either maids or prostitutes. By the end of this anecdote, some of the people sitting in the crowd were gob smacked and almost uttered, "Gross" and booed a little as well. This from a crowd where one would assume that everyone was sexually liberated (or so we think).

The book delves deep in the times that led to the revolution and post the revolution as well.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating
By The Emperor on April 18, 2012
Format: Hardcover
This was a really interesting book and not just because of the racy subject matter!

It is scholarly, persuasive and very well written. There are plenty of notes at the back and it is well referenced. However it is very readable. There were some fantastic details and anecdotes.

It is sobering to think that the not so long ago a lot of people in Britain might well have had a lot more in common with the `Taliban' than they would with us.

There were some great pictures in it as well. The author marshals his arguments very well and though obviously some might disagree with what he says he does always back up his arguments with evidence.
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5.0 out of 5 starsamazing book
By Richard Smith on November 20, 2012
Format: Hardcover
The author clearly shows how our modern ideas about sexual freedom grew out of the political debates about freedom during the Reformation and Enlightenment. He places sex clearly in its moral context and shows how our modern disordered society started during this time. Simply a brilliant work of history for those interested in the ethics of the modern world.
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5.0 out of 5 starsengaging read
By david l. poremba VINE VOICE on July 25, 2012
Format: Hardcover
When one thinks or hears about the first sexual revolution, one quickly focuses on the mid-1960's - 1970's and all that decade or so entailed. But the first sexual revolution discussed here is the history of changing ideas about sexual freedom from 1600 to 1800; the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By 1900, attitudes towards sex had changed drastically from an event punishable by death to a culture of sexual openness that found the doings of noted whores and notorious rakes on the pages of every newspaper. As the libertine ages moved into the early nineteenth century, the Victorians put a stop to such behavior and sexual freedom practically disappeared in an age of put-on, repression and double standards for both men and women.
Oxford historian Dabhoiwala has produced a well-researched, finely written book about sexual behavior and misbehavior, both of which are full of memorable characters and anecdotes. It was a period of time that produced the idea of the distinction between public and private, the lines of which are still hotly contested to this day.
Although The Origins of Sex focuses on the English, there are many parallels that can be seen on the subject on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. For example, it was in Boston, Massachusetts, where a man admitted he tried to have sex with an eighteen year old girl, admittedly while drunk; she was arrested and both were publicly hung - and that was in 1644.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

good about 17th centry

Published 13 months ago by Andrew C. Mitchell
5.0 out of 5 starsNo one-night-stand - this book means busibess

Exuberant, entertaining and thought-provoking. And it was certainly a good conversation starter on my bus ride to and from work!

Published on October 30, 2013 by Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars18th Century Sex Amongst English Gentry

The book starts well enough, but about a third the way through we enter the English 18th century and the story line gets taken over by novelist Richardson's female characters,... Read more

Published on August 8, 2013 by Kiwiip
3.0 out of 5 starsvery scholarly

I haven't read this yet, but I plan to, but it is thick and scholarly. I didn't expect porn, but I thought it might be a little more accessible.

Published on August 3, 2013 by Virginia Bruce
3.0 out of 5 starsNOT THE ORIGINS, NOT THE FIRST SEXUAL REVOLUTION

You will find a superfluity of positive comments on Faramerz Dabhoiwala's The Origins of Sex, A History of the First Sexual Revolution in [... Read more

Published on July 19, 2013 by Gonzalo T. Palacios
3.0 out of 5 starsI was expecting a little more

The book is not really entertaining to read and get's sometimes boring. I was expecting a few surprising cultural insights presented in a very enjoyable manner. Read more

Published on January 28, 2013 by Saif al Islam
2.0 out of 5 starsFull of facts but more like a Ph.D. dissertation

This book is well written, and I am sure made an excellent Ph.D. dissertation. There is a tremendous amount of material organized topically. Read more

Published on January 2, 2013 by MikeyR

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