1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910814031903321

Autore

McLaren Angus

Titolo

Impotence : a cultural history / / Angus McLaren

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2007

ISBN

1-281-96589-8

9786611965891

0-226-50093-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (351 p.)

Disciplina

616.6/922

Soggetti

Impotence - History

Impotence - Social aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-318) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 The Impenetrable Penetrator: Manhood in Greece and Rome -- 2. When "Desire Refuses Service": Impotence in the Christian West -- 3. The "Infirmity of Others": Laughing at Fumblers in Early Modern Europe -- 4. "Shameful to Wives, Ridiculous for Husbands, and Unworthy of Tribunals": Impotence in the Age of Reason -- 5. Neurasthenia, Decadence, and Nineteenth-Century Manhood -- 6. Marketing Manly Vigor: Victorian Medicine versus Quackery -- 7. Sigmund Freud, Marie Stopes, and "the Love of Civilized Man" -- 8. Sex Glands, Rejuvenation, and Eugenics between the Wars -- 9. The "Impotence Boom": From Kinsey to Masters and Johnson -- 10. Viagra: Hard Science or Hard Sell? -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

As anyone who has watched television in recent years can attest, we live in the age of Viagra. From Bob Dole to Mike Ditka to late-night comedians, our culture has been engaged in one long, frank, and very public talk about impotence-and our newfound pharmaceutical solutions. But as Angus McLaren shows us in Impotence, the first cultural history of the subject, the failure of men to rise to the occasion has been a recurrent topic since the dawn of human culture. Drawing on a dazzling range of sources from across centuries, McLaren demonstrates how male sexuality was