Overwhelming and at times wearying, but nonetheless an instructive look at previous battles over knowledge and suppression...
Extremely detailed study of how 19th-century Americans imagined sex and the resulting court battles over obscenity.
The period, writes Horowitz (American Studies/Smith; The Power and Passion of M. Carey Thomas, 1994), was “engaged in a complex four-way conversation about sex.” The first of the “four primary voices” she discerns was traditional bawdy humor, passed down through generations mostly in oral form but including such books as Fanny Hill. These frank works soon became targets of evangelical Christians, the second partner in this conversation. The third, and the one given the most space by Horowitz, is the “voice” of reform physiology, which here includes everything from the first medical books on birth control to the European notion that masturbation caused insanity. (The author also throws in a brief mention of John Humphrey Noyes’s utopian colony in Oneida, New York, and a quick survey of prescriptive literature.) Woven into this third section is the emerging world of an urban male “sporting” culture devoted to the pursuit of pleasure without thought of obligations or consequences; this culture gave rise to weekly newspapers that contained frank material about sexual matters. It is here that Horowitz turns to a study of the press, libel, and obscenity, noting that in addition to delivering erotic material, the weeklies possibly extorted money from their readership, for example by threatening to reveal the names of those who visited brothels. The final voice in this conversation comes from reformers promoting sexual liberty and adherents of free speech. The magnitude of Horowitz’s aims sometimes makes for a daunting read: a discussion of the Comstock Law requires an extensive review of the origins of the Y.M.C.A.; the history of an 1873 statute suppressing obscene literature dictates a lengthy portrait of free-love advocate Victoria Woodhull.
Overwhelming and at times wearying, but nonetheless an instructive look at previous battles over knowledge and suppression in a culture that remains “profoundly divided over questions of morality and its relation to government.” (86 illustrations)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-40192-X
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
An eclectic assortment of women make for an entertaining read.
An exuberant celebration of more than 100 women who shaped the myths and realities of New York City.
In her debut book, journalist Scelfo, who has written for the New York Times and Newsweek, aims to counter histories of New York that focus only on “male political leaders and male activists and male cultural tastemakers.” As the author discovered and shows, the contributions of women have been deeply significant, and she has chosen a copious roster of personalities, gathered under three dozen rubrics, such as “The Caretakers” (pioneering physicians Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell and Dr. Sara Josephine Baker, who enacted revolutionary hygienic measures in early-20th-century tenements); “The Loudmouths” (Joan Rivers and Better Midler); and “Wall Street” (brokerage firm founder Victoria Woodhull and miserly investor Hetty Green). With a plethora of women to choose from, Scelfo aimed for representation from musical theater, law enforcement, education, social justice movements, and various professions and organizations. Some of the women are familiar (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for her preservation work; Brooke Astor for her philanthropy), some iconic (Emma Lazarus, in a category of her own as “The Beacon”), and some little-known (artist Hildreth Meière, whose art deco designs can be seen on the south facade of Radio City Music Hall). One odd category is “The Crooks,” which includes several forgettable women who contributed to the city’s “cons and crimes.” The author’s brief, breezy bios reveal quirky facts about each woman, a form better suited to “The In-Crowd” (restaurateur Elaine Kaufman, hardly a crowd), entertainers (Betty Comden, Ethel Waters), and “The Wisecrackers” (Nora Ephron, Tina Fey) than to Susan Sontag, Edith Wharton, and Joan Didion. Nevertheless, the book is lively and fun, with something, no doubt, to pique anyone’s interest. Heald’s blithe illustrations add to the lighthearted mood.
An eclectic assortment of women make for an entertaining read.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58005-653-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
A declaration worth hearing out in a time of growing inequality—and indignity.
Noted number cruncher Sperling delivers an economist’s rejoinder to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Former director of the National Economic Council in the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the author has long taken a view of the dismal science that takes economic justice fully into account. Alongside all the metrics and estimates and reckonings of GDP, inflation, and the supply curve, he holds the great goal of economic policy to be the advancement of human dignity, a concept intangible enough to chase the econometricians away. Growth, the sacred mantra of most economic policy, “should never be considered an appropriate ultimate end goal” for it, he counsels. Though 4% is the magic number for annual growth to be considered healthy, it is healthy only if everyone is getting the benefits and not just the ultrawealthy who are making away with the spoils today. Defining dignity, admits Sperling, can be a kind of “I know it when I see it” problem, but it does not exist where people are a paycheck away from homelessness; the fact, however, that people widely share a view of indignity suggests the “intuitive universality” of its opposite. That said, the author identifies three qualifications, one of them the “ability to meaningfully participate in the economy with respect, not domination and humiliation.” Though these latter terms are also essentially unquantifiable, Sperling holds that this respect—lack of abuse, in another phrasing—can be obtained through a tight labor market and monetary and fiscal policy that pushes for full employment. In other words, where management needs to come looking for workers, workers are likely to be better treated than when the opposite holds. In still other words, writes the author, dignity is in part a function of “ ‘take this job and shove it’ power,” which is a power worth fighting for.
A declaration worth hearing out in a time of growing inequality—and indignity.Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-7987-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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