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Lust on trial : censorship and the rise of American obscenity in the age of Anthony Comstock

Author
Werbel, Amy Beth, author.
Title
Lust on trial : censorship and the rise of American obscenity in the age of Anthony Comstock / Amy Werbel.
Format
Book
Published
New York : Columbia University Press, [2018] ©2018
Description
xii, 391 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-370) and index.
Contents
  • Anthony Comstock, from Canaan to Gotham
  • Onward Christian soldiers : creating the industry and infrastructure of American vice suppression
  • Taming America's "rich" and "racy" underbelly (volume I: 1871-1884)
  • Artists, libertarians, and lawyers unite : the rise of the resistance (volume II: 1884-1895)
  • New women, new technology, and the demise of Comstockery (volume III: 1895-1915)
  • Conclusion : Post mortem.
Summary
Anthony Comstock was America's first professional censor. From 1873 to 1915, as Secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Comstock led a crusade against lasciviousness, salaciousness, and obscenity that resulted in the confiscation and incineration of more than three million pictures, postcards, and books he judged to be obscene. But as Amy Werbel shows in this rich cultural and social history, Comstock's campaign to rid America of vice in fact led to greater acceptance of the materials he deemed objectionable, offering a revealing tale about the unintended consequences of censorship. In Lust on Trial, Werbel presents a colorful journey through Comstock's career that doubles as a new history of post-Civil War America's risqué visual and sexual culture. Born into a puritanical New England community, Anthony Comstock moved to New York in 1868 armed with his Christian faith and a burning desire to rid the city of vice. Werbel describes how Comstock's raids shaped New York City and American culture through his obsession with the prevention of lust by means of censorship, and how his restrictions provided an impetus for the increased circulation and explicitness of "obscene" materials. By opposing women who preached sexual liberation and empowerment, suppressing contraceptives, and restricting artistic expression, Comstock drew the ire of civil liberties advocates, inspiring more open attitudes toward sexual and creative freedom and more sophisticated legal defenses. Drawing on material culture high and low, including numerous examples of the "obscenities" Comstock seized, Lust on Trial provides fresh insights into Comstock's actions and motivations, the sexual habits of Americans during his era, and the complicated relationship between law and cultural change.
Subject headings
Comstock, Anthony, 1844-1915. New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Censorship--United States--History. Obscenity (Law)--United States--History.
Kinsey subjects
Censorship. Legal aspects of obscenity.
Subject headings
United States--Moral conditions.
ISBN
9780231175227 (hardcover ; alkaline paper) 0231175221 (hardcover ; alkaline paper) 9780231547031

Holdings

Library
Blmgtn - Kinsey Institute Library (by appointment only)
Call Number
070 W32 l8 2018
Location
Auxiliary Library Facility - Kinsey Institute