Licentious Gotham

Licentious Gotham
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 410
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0674053737
ISBN-13 : 9780674053731
Rating : 4/5 (731 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Licentious Gotham by : Donna Dennis

Download or read book Licentious Gotham written by Donna Dennis and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-31 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Licentious Gotham, set in the streets, news depots, publishing houses, grand jury chambers, and courtrooms of the nation's great metropolis, delves into the stories of the enterprising men and women who created a thriving transcontinental market for sexually arousing books and pictures. The experiences of fancy publishers, flash editors, and racy novelists, who all managed to pursue their trade in the face of laws criminalizing obscene publications, dramatically convey nineteenth-century America's daring notions of sex, gender, and desire, as well as the frequently counterproductive results of attempts to enforce conventional moral standards. In nineteenth-century New York, the business of erotic publishing and legal attacks on obscenity developed in tandem, with each activity shaping and even promoting the pursuit of the other. Obscenity prohibitions, rather than curbing salacious publications, inspired innovative new styles of forbidden literature--such as works highlighting expressions of passion and pleasure by middle-class American women. Obscenity prosecutions also spurred purveyors of lewd materials to devise novel schemes to evade local censorship by advertising and distributing their products through the mail. This subterfuge in turn triggered far-reaching transformations in strategies for policing obscenity. Donna Dennis offers a colorful, groundbreaking account of the birth of an indecent print trade and the origins of obscenity regulation in the United States. By revealing the paradoxes that characterized early efforts to suppress sexual expression in the name of morality, she suggests relevant lessons for our own day.


Licentious Gotham Related Books

Licentious Gotham
Language: en
Pages: 410
Authors: Donna Dennis
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-07-31 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Licentious Gotham, set in the streets, news depots, publishing houses, grand jury chambers, and courtrooms of the nation's great metropolis, delves into the sto
Children, Media, and American History
Language: en
Pages: 137
Authors: Margaret Cassidy
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-10-02 - Publisher: Routledge

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Printed poison. Pernicious stuff. Since the nineteenth century, these are some of the many concerned comments critics have made about media for children. From d
The New England Watch and Ward Society
Language: en
Pages: 409
Authors: Paul Charles Kemeny
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The New England Watch and Ward Society provides a new window into the history of American Protestantism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
An Indispensable Liberty
Language: en
Pages: 311
Authors: Mary M. Cronin
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-03-09 - Publisher: SIU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This collection of eleven essays examines nineteenth-century legal and extralegal attempts to restrict freedom of speech and the press as well as the efforts o
Sex and the Civil War
Language: en
Pages: 152
Authors: Judith Giesberg
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-02-07 - Publisher: UNC Press Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Civil War soldiers enjoyed unprecedented access to obscene materials of all sorts, including mass-produced erotic fiction, cartes de visite, playing cards, and