Ronald G. Walters – Författare

"In this small but elegant book, Professor Walters approaches the interpretation of antislavery from a fresh vantage point . . . he asks new questions of old sources and comes up with novel and convincing interpretations . . [He] has allowed us to see antislavery as an organic outgrowth of American values and institutions." —Gerda Lerner, New York Historical Society Quarterly"Penetrating insights are sprinkled generously throughout, and monographic studies of abolitionism should take a new turn, now that Walters has shown how to perceive it in terms of symbols, perception, culture in general." —Aileen S. Kraditor, Journal of Southern History"A masterful picture of the milieu in which [antislavery] operated." —Robert V. Sparks, New England Quarterly"[A] wide-ranging, scintillatingly written analysis of abolitionist thought, perception, and feeling. Like all highly original, interdisciplinary ventures in scholarship, The Antislavery Appeal is bound to provoke controversy even as it stimulates thinking in many new directions . . . . All [scholars] will thank him for enlivening and enriching the study of pre-Civil War reform." —James brewer Stewart, Wisconsin Magazine of History

In Primers for Prudery Ronald G. Walters examines the historical and social context as well as the substance of sexual advice manuals in nineteenth-century America. Allowing the authors of these manuals to speak for themselves-with generous excerpts by contemporary authorities on subjects ranging from the virtues of celibacy to the vices of masturbation-Walters offers his readers a complex reading of the Victorian "prudery" referred to in the book's title. Supplementing each of the excerpts with extensive commentary, he places the advice manuals in the larger setting of gender and class issues. First published in 1974, Primers for Prudery now returns to print in a paperback edition with new selections from women's advice to women and a new preface in which Walters discusses changes that have occurred in the scholarship on sexuality since the book's first publication. He also provides an updated bibliographical note.