Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire
Apr 2012 · Catapult
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Take an “enormously informative and entertaining” tour through the history of Western sex law, from ancient times through the 19th century (Boston Globe)!
What royal mistresses and gay charioteers, medieval cross-dressers and lonely goat–lovers, can tell us about the history of human desire . . .
The “raging frenzy” of the sex drive, to use Plato’s phrase, has always defied control. However, that’s not to say the Sumerians, Victorians, and every civilization in between—and beyond—have not tried wielding their most formidable weapon: the law. Sex and Punishment tells the story of the struggle throughout the millennia to regulate the most powerful engine of human behavior.
Writer and lawyer Eric Berkowitz uses flesh–and–blood cases—much flesh and even more blood—to evoke the entire sweep of Western sex law, from the savage impalement of an ancient Mesopotamian adulteress to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde in 1895 for “gross indecency.” The cast of Sex and Punishment is as varied as the forms taken by human desire itself: royal mistresses, gay charioteers, medieval cross-dressers, lonely goat–lovers, prostitutes of all stripes, London rent boys. Each of them had forbidden sex, and each was judged—and justice, as Berkowitz shows, rarely had much to do with it.
With the light touch of a natural storyteller, Berkowitz spins these tales and more, going behind closed doors to reveal the essential history of human desire.
What royal mistresses and gay charioteers, medieval cross-dressers and lonely goat–lovers, can tell us about the history of human desire . . .
The “raging frenzy” of the sex drive, to use Plato’s phrase, has always defied control. However, that’s not to say the Sumerians, Victorians, and every civilization in between—and beyond—have not tried wielding their most formidable weapon: the law. Sex and Punishment tells the story of the struggle throughout the millennia to regulate the most powerful engine of human behavior.
Writer and lawyer Eric Berkowitz uses flesh–and–blood cases—much flesh and even more blood—to evoke the entire sweep of Western sex law, from the savage impalement of an ancient Mesopotamian adulteress to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde in 1895 for “gross indecency.” The cast of Sex and Punishment is as varied as the forms taken by human desire itself: royal mistresses, gay charioteers, medieval cross-dressers, lonely goat–lovers, prostitutes of all stripes, London rent boys. Each of them had forbidden sex, and each was judged—and justice, as Berkowitz shows, rarely had much to do with it.
With the light touch of a natural storyteller, Berkowitz spins these tales and more, going behind closed doors to reveal the essential history of human desire.
Take an “enormously informative and entertaining” tour through the history of Western sex law, from ancient times through the 19th century (Boston Globe)!
What royal mistresses and gay charioteers, medieval cross-dressers and lonely goat–lovers, can tell us about the history of human desire . . ...
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About the author
Eric Berkowitz's lengthy career as a lawyer, journalist and writer has been marked by both meticulous scholarship and uncompromising advocacy. An active intellectual property, First Amendment and business litigator, his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, California Lawyer, and The Washington Post, as well as websites such as
Huffington Post, AlterNet and Salon. He has been interviewed widely for radio and television including for the History Channel's recent 9–partseries, "How Sex Changed the World." He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Huffington Post, AlterNet and Salon. He has been interviewed widely for radio and television including for the History Channel's recent 9–partseries, "How Sex Changed the World." He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Eric Berkowitz's lengthy career as a lawyer, journalist and writer has been marked by both meticulous scholarship and uncompromising advocacy. An active intellectual property, First Amendment and business litigator, his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, California Lawyer, and...
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