European Sexualities, 1400–1800

A pioneering social and cultural history of sexuality in Europe from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment. Ideas about fertility, love, affection, sin, health, disease, criminality, and deviancy changed dramatically in this period and Katherine Crawford shows how these changes produced the conditions in which modern notions of sexuality were developed.

This is a major new survey of the social and cultural history of sexuality in early modern Europe. Within a frame that includes the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment, it weaves together statistical findings, discussions of changing sexual ideology, and evidence of belief structures regarding family, religion, science, crime, and deviance. While broad in overall scope and coverage, the transformations are framed to highlight the narrative of change over time within each domain. By emphasizing the interrelationship between practices and ideological change - in family form, religious organization, medical logic, legal structures, and notions of deviancy - Katherine Crawford''s accessible survey reveals how these changes produced the conditions in which our modern notions of sexuality were developed. This book will be essential reading for students of early modern European history and the history of sexuality.