| Sex and Punishment tells the story of the struggle throughout millennia to regulate the most powerful engine of human behaviour: sex. From the savage impalement of an Ancient Mesopotamian adulteress to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde for gross indecency in 1895, Eric Berkowitz evokes the entire sweep of Western sex law. I dont think Ive ever read such an entertaining historical work. Whether you want to fuel your indignation, or simply furnish yourself with enough jaw-dropping data to galvanise a hundred party conversations, you really must shell out for this book. Its worth every penny. Nicholas Lezard, Guardian A wonderful exposure of the illogicality of so much legislation that attempts to regulate sexual activity ... from the age of consent to adultery and sex on college campuses. Mary Beard A fascinating and gruesomely compelling study of human sexuality Mail on Sunday Eric Berkowitz's cross-examination of human sexuality is both exciting and impressively relentless. Sunday Times 'Stimulating Berkowitz has achieved a perfect balance between case study and analysis, and between narrative and reflection. This is a wonderfully well-written, well-organised and accomplished book.' Sarah Wheeler, Literary Review The cast of Sex and Punishment is as varied as the forms taken by human desire itself: royal mistresses, gay charioteers, medieval transvestites, lonely goat-lovers, prostitutes of all stripes and London rent boys. Each of them had forbidden sex, and each was judged and justice, as Berkowitz shows rarely had anything to do with it. |
