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ΒΟΟΚ DESCRIPTION

LOVE
—perhaps the most potent world in our language— has been almost all things to men: a voluptuous amusement...an ennobling ideal...a tool of the devil...a psychiatric cure-all...an experience of God...even a synonym for good housekeeping.

This superbly written book is wide-ranging, deeo-probing history of what love has meant in the Western world. It tells how people since early Greek times have experienced the emotion of love; how love has in its various manifestations been related to sex, courtship, marriage, social status, and romanceq and why modern love, emerging from the traditions of the past, has come to have such crucial importance for people today.

Morton Hunt draws on the letters and diaries of both famous and little-known people who, in their emotional lives, epitomized the pattern of love in their time. He marshals a splendid parade of lovers and shapers of love: Alcibiades, the insolent hero of the Greeks; Samuel Pepys, rake, husband, gossip, and philanderer; Eleanor of Aquitaine, who presided over the "court of love"; Casanova, the neurotic Don Juan; Martin Luther, the not always ascetic monk; Rousseau, whose first affair was with a woman he called "Mamma"; Saint Mary the Harlot, who waged the Christian struggle against lust; Ovid, guide to adulterers; Havelock Ellis, who found his own impassioned pleas for healthy sex difficult to follow; and many more.

As Mr. Hunt says: "This is neither a Perfumed Garden nor a historian's Kinsey Report, but primarily a history of emotional relationships between the sexes, Sexuality plays a part, to be sure, bu the thing I have wanted to show is how people have felt about each other." Intriguing, surprising, and continuously illuminating, The Natural History of Love is probably the best book yet written for everyone who seeks a more profound understanding of the bond—sometimes fragile, sometimes galling, sometimes strong and life-giving —that unites men and women.

Morton M. Hunt (1959). The Natural History of Love. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Hardcover in colour dust jacket. xiii+416+xiii=442p.

In this edition of Letters to Penthouse, men and women confess every exquisite detail of their torrid affairs, sensual adventures, and wild one-night stands. No adventure is too daring-no kink too dirty. Married couples, perfect strangers, frisky friends, and randy roommates mix and match their desires-and share every sizzling detail of their erotic exploits.

We may know pornography when we see it, but the business of pornography is a surprisingly elusive subject. Reliable figures about the industry are difficult to come by and widely disputed, but one matter that is hardly debatable is that pornography is a major and ubiquitous enterprise. Porn allegedly accounts for one-third of all internet traffic currently, though the data about actual consumption is unclear. Reports in recent years have suggested that 70 million individuals visit porn sites every week; that among viewers aged 18-24, women watch more porn than men; and that among middle-aged, white-collar workers, three-quarters of men and half of women have admitted to looking at pornography websites while at work. While debates and emotions around porn can run high, there is a crucial need for reliable information and rational conversation. In this book, Shira Tarrant parses the wide range of statistics that we have on the pornography industry, sorting myth from reality in an objective, fascinating and knowledgeable fashion. She looks at ongoing political controversies around the industry, the feminist porn wars, the views of the religious right, the history of pornography, landmark legal cases, and the latest in medical research. The Pornography Industry also explains the industry basics -who works in porn, why people become performers, how much they earn, and what happens on a porn set. It further delves into important questions such as: how many teenagers watch porn and should we worry about it? What is porn piracy and can it be stopped? What can the industry do about sexist and racist pornography? Does porn cause violence against women? Can people become addicted to porn? Is watching porn the same as infidelity? By presenting competing perspectives in an even-handed way, The Pornography Industry will enable readers to explore these provocative issues and make their own best decisions about the debates.

For twenty years Shere Hite has been conducting ground-breaking research into the personal lives of women and men, From her conclusions she has formulated philosophical guidelines which have initiated and enlightened debates about sexuality, love marriage, autonomy, friendships between women, male psychology, the family and our very culture in a time of radical change.

From the first Hite Report, which presented a new theory of female sexuality— one defined by women themselves and not imposed by the vagaries of Freud, patriarchy or Masterns and Johnson— to her celebrated psychosexual investigations of men and her latest analysis of the emotions surrounding love as women describe them, Shere Hite is consistently eloquent and challenging. She takes the pulse of individuals, astonishing numbers of them, and on the basis of wide-ranging research formulates her theories.

To read this outstanding distillation of Hite's writings is to see the continuing impact of her prodigious work over two decades and, at the same time, to be taken to the cutting edge of the current debate on sexual politics in our culture.

Shite Here (1993). Women as Revolutionary Agents of Change: Selected Essays in Psychology and Gender 1972-1993. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd. Softcover. viii+438p. ISBN-13: 978-0-7475-1377-3.