Contraception: A History

In this engaging new book Robert Juette 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 Juette 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, Juette 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.

Book Description
Birth control is not an invention of modern times, nor is it a purely personal matter. By the same token, mighty institutions such as church and state have exerted their influence as effectively as that of 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 shape the discourse on birth control. The focal point of this engaging new book by renowned historian, Robert Juette, is the Europe of modern times. It also takes in its scope various cultural groups elsewhere in America, China, India and the near East, and world religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, offering an engaging comparative study of the phenomenon of contraception. Demographic and political aspects of population studies are explored from the early middle ages to the present, as well as the population theories of Malthus. Juette explains how our antecedents dealt with such things and how today's technologies, the condom and coil for example, and our moral perceptions have evolved. In addition to the contraceptives we know and use today, Juette considers other contraceptive practices as diverse as the persecution of witches, the castration of young boys to preserve their voices, the habits of prostitutes and their varied clients and the use of herbs and very peculiar talismans. This comprehensive survey of one of the oldest and most urgent problems of mankind builds up a rich picture of how, over the centuries, all manner of men and women, together and separately, have battled with the needs both for sexual gratification and for limitation of offspring, and also looks beyond to how contraception might evolve in the future.