| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xii, 386 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-363) and index. |
| Contents |
List of illustrations -- 1. The danse du ventre -- 2. Viceland -- 3. The bewitching brokers -- 4. The sensational comedy of free love -- 5. Mr. Comstock goes to Washington -- 6. The binding forces of conjugal life -- 7. The wickedest woman in New York -- 8. The physiologist -- 9. The Comstock syringe -- 10. A new secretary -- 11. Helps to happy wedlock -- 12. The Church of Yoga -- 13. Comstock versus Craddock -- 14. The femininity of the universe -- 15. What every girl should know -- 16. Why and how the poor should not have many children -- 17. I am glad and proud to be a criminal -- 18. Breach in the enemy's lines -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index. |
| Summary |
A narrative history about Anthony Comstock, US Postal Inspector and vice hunter, and the remarkable women who opposed him. Anthony Comstock, special agent to the U.S. Post Office, was one of the most important men in the lives of nineteenth-century women. The Comstock law, passed in 1873, penalized the mailing of contraception and obscenity with long sentences and steep fines. Between 1873 and Comstock's death in 1915, eight women were charged with violating state and federal Comstock laws. They took on the fearsome censor in explicit, personal writing, seeking to redefine work, family, marriage, and love for a bold new era. Sohn tells the overlooked story of the valiant attempts by these publishers, writers, and doctors to fight Comstock in court and in the press. Risking imprisonment and death, they redefined birth control access as a civil liberty.--adapted from jacket. |
| Subject |
Comstock, Anthony, 1844-1915.
|
|
Comstock, Anthony, 1844-1915. |
|
Postal inspectors -- United States -- Biography.
|
|
Postal inspectors. |
|
United States. |
| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
|
| Subject |
Women -- Sexual behavior -- United States -- History.
|
|
Women -- Sexual behavior. |
|
History. |
|
Pornography -- United States -- History.
|
|
Pornography. |
|
United States -- Moral conditions.
|
|
Moral conditions. |
|
Obscenity (Law) -- United States -- History.
|
|
Obscenity (Law) |
|
Vice control -- United States -- History.
|
|
Vice control. |
|
Censorship -- United States -- History.
|
|
Censorship. |
|
Postal service -- Censorship -- United States -- History.
|
|
Postal service -- Censorship. |
|
Anticensorship activists -- United States -- History.
|
|
Anticensorship activists. |
|
Birth control -- United States -- History.
|
|
Birth control. |
|
Contraceptives -- United States -- History.
|
|
Contraceptives. |
|
Women social reformers -- United States -- History.
|
|
Women social reformers. |
| Genre/Form |
History.
|
| Subject |
Women. |
|
Womyn. |
|
Pornography. |
|
Censorship. |
| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
|
| ISBN |
9781250174819 (hardcover) |
|
1250174813 (hardcover) |
| Standard No. |
40030636105 |
|
