Ronald G. Walters is a professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of American Reformers: 1815-1860 and The Antislavery Appeal: American Abolitionism after 1830 and editor of Scientific Authority in Twentieth-Century America (available from Johns Hopkins).

Walters warns that by today's standards, the advice may appear naive, even ludicrous. Nevertheless, he urges us to put aside our smug presentism. The Victorians were not the wretched victims of sexual repression we may imagine. Rather they were women and men who found in restrictive sexual codes something of value appropriate to their lives. Why else would the repressive codes have endured so long? American Quarterly

• Preface, 2000Introduction Chapter 1. Approaching This Delicate SubjectChapter 2. A Destructive ImpulseChapter 3. The Path DownwardChapter 4. Woman, Sensuous and OtherwiseChapter 5. MarriageChapter 6. and Other Forms of ExploitationChapter 7. Controls and CuresChapter 8. The Welcome ChildChapter 9. Perfecting the RaceAfterword: Some Nineteenth-Century LivesEpilogue: Cross CurrentsBibliographical NoteIndex

Ronald G. Walters is a professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of American Reformers: 1815-1860 and The Antislavery Appeal: American Abolitionism after 1830 and editor of Scientific Authority in Twentieth-Century America (available from Johns Hopkins).

Walters warns that by today's standards, the advice may appear naive, even ludicrous. Nevertheless, he urges us to put aside our smug presentism. The Victorians were not the wretched victims of sexual repression we may imagine. Rather they were women and men who found in restrictive sexual codes something of value appropriate to their lives. Why else would the repressive codes have endured so long? American Quarterly

• Preface, 2000Introduction Chapter 1. Approaching This Delicate SubjectChapter 2. A Destructive ImpulseChapter 3. The Path DownwardChapter 4. Woman, Sensuous and OtherwiseChapter 5. MarriageChapter 6. and Other Forms of ExploitationChapter 7. Controls and CuresChapter 8. The Welcome ChildChapter 9. Perfecting the RaceAfterword: Some Nineteenth-Century LivesEpilogue: Cross CurrentsBibliographical NoteIndex

Ronald G. Walters is a professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of American Reformers: 1815-1860 and The Antislavery Appeal: American Abolitionism after 1830 and editor of Scientific Authority in Twentieth-Century America (available from Johns Hopkins).

Walters warns that by today's standards, the advice may appear naive, even ludicrous. Nevertheless, he urges us to put aside our smug presentism. The Victorians were not the wretched victims of sexual repression we may imagine. Rather they were women and men who found in restrictive sexual codes something of value appropriate to their lives. Why else would the repressive codes have endured so long? American Quarterly

• Preface, 2000Introduction Chapter 1. Approaching This Delicate SubjectChapter 2. A Destructive ImpulseChapter 3. The Path DownwardChapter 4. Woman, Sensuous and OtherwiseChapter 5. MarriageChapter 6. and Other Forms of ExploitationChapter 7. Controls and CuresChapter 8. The Welcome ChildChapter 9. Perfecting the RaceAfterword: Some Nineteenth-Century LivesEpilogue: Cross CurrentsBibliographical NoteIndex