Contraception
A History
Contraception is not an invention of modern times, nor is it a
purely personal matter. Social institutions such as the church and
the state have exerted their influence as effectively as doctors,
population theorists, and the early pioneers of the feminist
movement. All of these claim a special expertise in matters of
ethics and morality, and so have shaped the discourses on and
practices of birth control over the centuries.
In this engaging new book Robert Jütte offers a history of
contraception from the Ancient world to the present day. He
distinguishes two broad phases: first, a long phase, extending from
the Ancient world up to the 18th century, in which birth control
was part of a traditional form of sexual knowledge what Jütte
calls, following the French social philosopher Michel Foucault, the
ars erotica. In the second phase, which began in the 19th century,
practices of birth control are increasingly shaped by the emerging
models of scientific knowledge, while still retaining some vestiges
of the erotic arts.
In addition to the contraceptives we know and use today, from
coitus interruptus to the condom and the pill, Jütte considers
other methods of birth control as diverse as the use of herbal
potions and vaginal pessaries, the castration of young boys and the
enforced sterilization of men and women. This comprehensive history
of one of the oldest and most widespread of human practices offers
a rich and nuanced account of how men and women across the
centuries have struggled with the needs both for sexual
gratification and for limitation of offspring, while also looking
beyond the present to catch a glimpse of how contraception might
evolve in the future.
Introduction
Ars erotica: the early arts of birth control
The Economics of Sexual Reproduction: birth control in the ancient world?
Calls for greater Fertility: origins of the reproduction ethic in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
The not so secret Lore of Ancient Medicine
Poetic Truth: deliberate infertility as a theme in ancient literature
Unfruitful Activities: "suppositories for women" and herbal potions
Transformations: the supposed repression of birth control knowledge in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times
A History of Demographics and the Origins of Birth Control
Secreta mulierum: female lore on pregnancy and birth control
Sexual Desire and Atonement: a theology of "the sinful flesh"
Castration, Condoms, Casanovas: techniques of birth control old and new
The Commencement of scientia sexualis in the 19th century: the effects of moral and political imperatives on the discourse on birth control
(Neo-) Malthusianism and its Implications for Demographics
A fresh approach to knowledge: educational sex brochures and their readers
Sexual politics: intensified control and its counter resistance
The practice of "being careful" - between tradition and progress
A Day to Day Regime: the "democratisation" of birth control in the 20th century
A Promise of Deliverance: the "nationalisation" of birth control: enforced sterilisation and national birth control programmes
Sexual Morality in Transition and the waning Influence of Religion
synchronicity and the asynchronous: birth control techniques old and new
Future Prospects
"A contraceptive Pill for men" - the contraceptive of the future
Notes
Bibliography
reading on the topic is its fine historiography and analysis of
foregoing authors' projects."
The Lancet
"Should prove useful to students and scholars alike."
Times Higher Education
"A fascinating, detailed and well-researched insight into the
social, cultural and religious influences that have influenced
knowledge, attitudes, acceptance and use of fertility control
throughout history."
Family Planning Association newsletter
"A carefully researched survey that will provide useful material
for those interested in comparing ideas about contraception in diff
erent places and times."
English Historical Review
"Robert Jütte's extraordinary history of
contraception enables us to look in an entirely new way at the
claim of the 1960s generation that theirs was the first sexual
revolution. The struggle for the control of sexual reproduction
from the ancient world through the Middle Ages is as important to
Jütte's story as are the rise of sexual science in the
nineteenth century and the introduction of the pill in the
twentieth. Indeed how 'modern' means exist side by side with
'traditional' means of birth control (some more efficient than
others - but which?) haunts this entire history. A readable
and fascinating account of woman's age-old struggle."
Sander Gilman, Emory University
"The publication of an English version of Robert Jütte's
Lust ohne Last is greatly to be applauded. This extremely
thoughtful and engagingly written study substantially exceeds
earlier attempts to set down histories of contraception. Jütte
has produced a chronologically wide-ranging cultural history and
adopts a Foucauldian framework in which the issues of power and
knowledge loom large throughout. As a result it is a work of great
interest to social and cultural historians, demographers,
historically minded social scientists, and historians of ideas,
medicine and science."
Richard Smith, University of Cambridge
Robert Bosch Foundation and Professor of Modern History at
Stuttgart University.
Translated by Vicky Russell.