Contents

• Introduction
• Part I : Sexual conversation
• Vernacular sexual culture, commercial erotica, and obscene libel ; Free thought, sexual knowledge, and Evangelical Christianity ; Blasphemy, birth control, and obscenity ; Masturbation scare and the rise of reform physiology
• Part II : New York scene
• New York and the emergence of sporting culture ; Moral reformers ; Sporting weeklies and obscene libel ; Abortion ; Obscenity in the city
• Part III : Additions and complications
• Placing sex at the core of being ; Blurring the boundaries
• Part IV : Sexual knowledge and obscenity in New York and the nation
• Y.M.C.A. of New York, the Civil War, and Anthony Comstock ; Sex talk in the open ; Victoria Woodhull ; Comstock Law ; Comstock’s crusade ; Convictions ; Constitutionality and resistance : Bennett, Benedict, and Blatchford