Description
Book SynopsisAmy Werbel provides a colorful journey through professional censor Anthony Comstock’s career that doubles as a history of post-Civil War America’s risqué visual and sexual culture.
Lust on Trial provides fresh insights into Comstock, the sexual habits of Americans during his era, and the complicated relationship between law and cultural change.
Trade ReviewAn incisive history of the futility of censorship ... richly detailed. * Kirkus Reviews *
An insightful and entertaining critical examination of the prominent American censor Anthony Comstock (1844-1915). . . . [a] fascinating, page-turning study. * Publishers Weekly *
A thoughtful new addition to the literature on Comstock and 19th-century sexual mores. -- Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc. * Library Journal *
[A] dense and enjoyable book. -- Anthony Mostrom * Los Angeles Review of Books *
A richly detailed, deeply researched and lavishly illustrated account of Comstock’s career and legacy. * Times Literary Supplement *
Making good use of recent monographic studies of mass media and the history of sexuality, the author, an associate professor of the history of art at the Fashion Institute of Technology, places the architect and chief executor of U.S. anti-obscenity law in a thick social and cultural context. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Education *
A work more relevant now than ever . . . [A] titillating manuscript. -- Marcela Micucci * The Gotham Center for New York City History *
Meticulously researched study. -- Mary Campbell * Panorama *
Amy Werbel probably now knows more about Anthony Comstock than anyone alive today. (And oh, how deliciously unpleasant some of that knowledge is!) There’s a sense of discovery that keeps this narrative moving. -- Susan Jacoby, author of
The Age of American UnreasonIn this vibrant history, Amy Werbel explores the legal and cultural battles surrounding the censorship of "obscene" materials in late nineteenth and early twentieth century New York.
Lust on Trial not only mines the history of censorship and repression in a modernizing America, but also sheds light on its legacy for current debates. -- Nadine Strossen, author of
HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship and immediate past president, American Civil Liberties Union (1991–2008)
Amy Werbel's
Lust on Trial offers a brilliant analysis of the life and times of Anthony Comstock, the fiercely religious moralist who led the national campaign to rid the United States of sexual expression from 1873 until his death in 1915. As Werbel powerfully demonstrates, Comstock's efforts to persuade the nation that such expression "corrupts the mind . . . and damns the soul" perilously threatened our nation's separation of church and state. This lesson in how religious fanaticism can destroy our freedom is now more important than ever. -- Geoffrey Stone, University of Chicago
In this meticulously researched study, Amy Werbel traces the rise—and eventual decline—of the figure whose name became synonymous with censorship in nineteenth-century America. She delineates how Anthony Comstock’s policing of erotic imagery touched on diverse areas of the nation’s civic life, from religion, politics, and the law to art and popular culture. In so doing, she illuminates the distinctive commingling of prudishness and prurience that shapes the American cultural imagination to this day. -- Michael Lobel, Hunter College
Intensely researched and thought-provoking work. -- Christine Schultz-Richert, University of Alabama * Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy *
Amy Werbel’s new study turns up other surprises that will make the work of interest to students of art
history as well as readers with an interest in gender and LGBTQ history. * American Historical Review *
A visually striking book. . . . Historians will appreciate Werbel’s attention to uncovering the stories of everyday Americans who found themselves in Comstock’s crosshairs, and her book will make a lively addition to undergraduate and graduate courses on the histories of art, obscenity, and sexuality. * H-SHGAPE *
Werbel’s book is well worth reading; it adds to our understanding of the transformation of American culture in the early decades of the twentieth century. * Winterthur Portfolio *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Anthony Comstock, From Canaan to Gotham
2. Onward Christian Soldiers: Creating the Industry and Infrastructure of American Vice Suppression
3. Taming America’s “Rich” and “Racy” Underbelly (Volume I: 1871–1884)
4. Artists, Libertarians, and Lawyers Unite: The Rise of the Resistance (Volume II: 1884–1895)
5. New Women, New Technology, and the Demise of Comstockery (Volume III: 1895–1915)
Conclusion: Postmortem
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Books, Articles, and Digital Resources
Index
