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Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock
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About Lust On Trial: Censorship And The Rise Of American
Product Description Anthony Comstock was America’s first professional censor. From 1873 to 1915, as Secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Comstock led a crusade against lasciviousness, salaciousness, and obscenity that resulted in the confiscation and incineration of more than three million pictures, postcards, and books he judged to be obscene. But as Amy Werbel shows in this rich cultural and social history, Comstock’s campaign to rid America of vice in fact led to greater acceptance of the materials he deemed objectionable, offering a revealing tale about the unintended consequences of censorship. In Lust on Trial, Werbel presents a colorful journey through Comstock’s career that doubles as a new history of post–Civil War America’s risqué visual and sexual culture. Born into a puritanical New England community, Anthony Comstock moved to New York in 1868 armed with his Christian faith and a burning desire to rid the city of vice. Werbel describes how Comstock’s raids shaped New York City and American culture through his obsession with the prevention of lust by means of censorship, and how his restrictions provided an impetus for the increased circulation and explicitness of “obscene” materials. By opposing women who preached sexual liberation and empowerment, suppressing contraceptives, and restricting artistic expression, Comstock drew the ire of civil liberties advocates, inspiring more open attitudes toward sexual and creative freedom and more sophisticated legal defenses. Drawing on material culture high and low, including numerous examples of the “obscenities” Comstock seized, Lust on Trial provides fresh insights into Comstock’s actions and motivations, the sexual habits of Americans during his era, and the complicated relationship between law and cultural change. Review "An incisive history of the futility of censorship." - Kirkus Reviews "Based on an impressive amount of research into both primary and secondary sources, Werbel's writing possesses a scholarly formality, but also accessibility, elegance, and wit . . . fascinating, page-turning." - Publisher's Weekly "Werbel, a distinguished art historian, is especially qualified to analyse American visual culture. She gives a richly detailed, deeply researched and lavishly illustrated account of Comstock's career and legacy. His story, she concludes, demonstrates that "a fierce and dogged opponent" may actually be a gift to champions of free speech, energizing and uniting progressives from many classes and causes." - Elaine Showalter, Times Literary Supplement "Lust on Trial has its fun side, documenting the long-forgotten netherworld of post-Civil War erotica, both artistic and literary, and the surprising underground popularity of "rubber goods" such as condoms, sex toys, dildos, S&M devices, and other carnal amusements. . . . Unearthing this history is an amazing feat of pop-cultural scholarship." - Anthony Mostrom, Los Angeles Review of Books "The seamless link Werbel provides between the nation's early anti-obscenity battles and current debates over the separation of church and state, rights to privacy, and civil liberties makes Lust on Trial a work more relevant now than ever. As Amy Werbel's titillating manuscript reveals, Comstock put lust on trial... and lust prevailed." - Marcela Micucci, The Gotham Center for New York History Blog About the Author Amy Werbel is associate professor of the history of art at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is the author of Thomas Eakins: Art, Medicine, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia (2007).
