Below is a list of books I have read and used as references for my classes on the history of sexuality. I emphasize the book list in my classes as often as possible. I want people who attend to consider further research. Besides being a fun subject, it is a facet of knowledge often marginalized in favor of safer topics. The need to hide or sanitize the information is so prevalent that unless you pursue the history of sexuality in a straightforward manner it’s unlikely you will find accurate information. I have asterisks next to my favorites.
Anderson, Bonnie S. and Judity P. Zinsser. A History of Their Own: Women in Europe From Prehistory to the Present, v1. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.
Berkowitz, Eric. Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Jedging Desire. Berkley, California; Cournterpoint Press, 2012.
Boswell, John. Same-Sex Unions: In Premodern Erope. New York: Villard Books, 1994.
Cadden, Joan. Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, science and culture. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Cawthorne, Nigel. The Sex Lives of the Kings and Queens of England: An Irreverent Exposé of the Monarchs from Henry VIII to the Present Day. London: Prion 1994.
Cohn Jr., Samuel K. Women in the Streets: Essays on Sex and Power In Renaissance Italy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
Cosman, Madeleine Pelner. Women at Work in Medieval Europe. New York: Facst on File, 2000.
Evans, Hilary. Harlots, Whores & Hookers: A History of Prostitution. New York: Taplinger Pub., 1979.
*Friedman, David M. A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis. New York: The Free Press, 2001.
Gies, Frances and Joseph. Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Green, Monica. “Women’s Medical Practice and Health Care in Medieval Europe.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s Communities 14.2. Winter 1989: 434-473.
Green, Shirley. The Curious History of Contraception. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1971.
Harris, Karen L & Caskey-Sigety, Lori. The Medieval Vagina: An Historical and Hysterical Look at All Things Vaginal During the Middle Ages. U.S.A: Snark Publishing, 2014
Karras, Ruth Mazo. “The Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval England.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s Communities 14.2. Winter 1989: 399-433.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others. New York: Routledge, 2005.
*Kendrick, Walter. The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture. Berkley: University of California Press, 1987.
Lawner, Lynn. I Mondi: The Sixteen Pleasures. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1988.
Lawner, Lynne. Lives of the Curtesans: Portraits of the Renaissance. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1987.
*Maines, Rachel P. The Technology of Orgasm: “Histeria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Masson, Georgina. Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.
McLaren, Angus. Á History of Contraception: From Antiquity to the Present Day. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992.
Moulton, Ian Frederick. Before Pornography: Erotic Writing in Early Modern England. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Muir, Edward and Guido Ruggiero, eds. Sex & Gender in Historical Perspective: Selections From Quaderni Storici. Trans. Margaret A. Gallucci with Mary M. Gallucci and Corle C. Gallucci. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
*Néret, Gilles. Erotica Universalis, Volume 1. Germany: Taschen, 2000.
Otis-Cour, Leah L. Prostitution in Mediveval Society: The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Paley, Maggie. The Book of the Penis. New York: Grove Press, 1999.
Ranke-Heineman, Uta. Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality, and the Caholic Church. New York: Doubleday, 1927.
Ringdal, Johan Nil. Love for Sale: a World History of Prostitution. Denmark. Grove Press, 2004.
Rosenthal, Margaret F. The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Rossiaud, Jacques. Medieval Prostitution. New York, New York: Blackwell, 1988.
*Ruggiero, Guido. The Boundaries of Eros: Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Siraisi, Nancy G. Medieval & Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990.
*Tang, Isabel. Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization. London: Channel 4 Books, 1999.
Weir, Anthony. “Satan in the Groin: Exhibitionist Carvings in Medieval Churches.” http://www.beyond-the-pale.org.uk.
*Westphal-Wihl, Sarah. “The Ladies’ Tournament: Marriage, Sex, and Honor in Thirteenth-Century Germany.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s Communities 14.2 Winter 1989: 371-398.