Research Catalog

Title

The humble little condom : a history / Aine Collier.

Author

Collier, Aine.

Publication

Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

371 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

"Whether you call it a quondam, a French letter, a preventative bag, a filthy slipper, a night cap, or an English raincoat, the condom has a long and curious history. In her witty, well-researched, and sexy chronicle, Aine Collier traces the origins of this humble little device; describes its various permutations, from the be-ribboned sheep and fish gut varieties to the innovative latex sort; and recounts the debacles over condom use as birth control, disease preventative, and indispensable - lifesaving - tool for savvy streetwalkers and gentlemen callers, sailors and soldiers, and lovers and partners in the age of AIDS."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Condoms > history
• Contraception > history
• Condoms > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. Papyrus, Serpents, and Loincloths: The Ancients and the Condom -- 2. From Sex for "Delit" to the Great Pox: Love in Early Modern Europe -- 3. Le Male de Naples, la Mal Francois, las Bubas, or the Venetian Disease: Columbus and the Great Pox -- 4. May Prick nor Purse Never Fail You ... Parliamentarians, Poets, Pundits, and Provenance -- 5. Medical Arguments against Armour and a Case of Caveat Emptor: Doctors, Debates, Debauchees, and the Mrs. P's -- 6. The Most Famous, and Infamous, Users of All: The Celebrity Overcoat -- 7. Malthus, Skins, and Dead Letters: The West's Culture Wars -- 8. A One-Man Fight against the Condom: The American Civil War and Comstockery -- 9. Obscenity Laws, American Tips, and French Ticklers: Was There an English Comstock? -- 10. "The Nineteenth Century's Greatest Invention": Muckrakers, Moral Armour, and the Great War -- 11. Nookie in the Struggle Buggy: All That Jazz and the Age of Advertising -- 12. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime ... for a Rubber? The Great Depression -- 13. Victory ... Will Ride on the Rubber You Save: The War Years -- 14. Backseat Bingo with My Classy Chassis ... Let's Get It On! From Baby Boom to Modern Plague -- 15. Abstain Was All He Said: In the Age of AIDS -- Epilogue: Plenty of Condoms, No Water: The New Millennium.

ISBN

• 9781591025566 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 1591025567 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

• 2007027086
• 99820916081

OCLC

• ocn153300137
• 153300137
• SCSB-5416431

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries