Contraception A History

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.

Foreword

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

Translated by Vicky Russell.