A pioneering new investigation of sex and manhood

With few exceptions, sex is noticeably absent from popular histories chronicling colonial and Revolutionary America. Using court records, newspapers, sermons, and private papers from Massachusetts, Thomas Foster vividly shows that sex—the behaviors, desires, and identities associated with eroticism—was a critical component of colonial understanding of the qualities considered befitting for a man. Starkly challenging current views about the development of sexuality in America, the book details early understandings of sexual identity and locates a surprising number of stereotypes until now believed to have originated a century later.

As this engrossing and surprising study shows, we cannot understand manliness today or in our early American past without coming to terms with the oft-hidden relationship between sex and masculinity.

“For both what it shows and what it suggests, Sex and the Eighteenth-Century Man casts its eye on a fascinating and pivotal place and time. It’s a book sure to add a new dimension to readers’ understanding of masculinity’s myriad forms.” —Michael Bronski, The Guide

“Vital reading for anyone seriously interested in American history or gender studies.”

Publishers Weekly

You might not know it from reading those blockbusting biographies of the founding fathers, but sex was everywhere.” —Matthew Price The New York Times Book Review

Thomas A. Foster is an Associate Professor in the department of history at DePaul University. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Publisher: Beacon
Imprint: Beacon Press
Distributor: Houghton Mifflin Company
Publication Date: 09-03-2007
Pages: 248
Measurements: 9.00in X 6.00in X 0.82lb