Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
Bezig met laden... Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstockdoor Amy Beth Werbel
Geen Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
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. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeen
Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)306.77Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Relations between the sexes, sexualities, love PracticesLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
The author has done much research and demonstrates it well. The reader is given insight into Comstock's origins and the sources of his motivations; his career is systematically explained with plenty of primary source details provided. Comstock is well contextualized as are those who opposed him and the changes in society which took place during his life.
In the end the author proves quite unsympathetic to her subject and the work is written partly to explain how we got to where we are in terms of concerns about obscenity and the First Amendment arguments which led to expansion of free speech and free expression, but also to condemn not only Comstock but all who would come after him in their concerns. The author concludes with a desire to make sure that free speech and free expression are preserved from zealous neo-Comstocks; I am sure she has Ashcroft and his covering of Lady Justice in mind.
And, to that end, she has a point for her concern; it is one thing to have personal scruples, and it is quite another to attempt to impose them on everyone else. What is disappointing is that there is no counterbalance, no concern as to whether unbridled free expression is really a great or healthy thing for a society, and whether there should be some set of standards for public decency so as to allow some people, if they so choose, to maintain more strict standards about what they see and consume than others. And there is certainly no discussion in the work about how Comstockery may come from the Left in its own zeal in attempting to reform morals and suppress what is seen as vice, offensive literature and ideas, and the like.
Such is not an attempt to justify Comstock in his methods, approach, or excess; but if Comstock is going to be held up as a warning about what happens when someone with an understandable concern is given too much power and influence to shut down and shame, then that warning should be broadcast across the spectrum, not giving a pass to your own tribe and signaling one's fear of the other tribe.
Also, erotic Victorian imagery present within the book.
**--galley received as part of early review program ( )