From 1929, Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism, social struggles, marriage, early societies, education, religion, morality, art, children and youth, birth control, psychology, poetry, modern narcissism, censorship, the novel, law, ‘degeneracies,’ Freud, social jealousy, democracy, and revolution are all seen through the prism of human sex and sexuality in this groundbreaking compilation from the iconoclastic editors of the long-running, critical Marxist ‘Modern Monthly’ magazine. Hosting a wide variety of writers, practitioners, and intellectuals, this book is a reminder that we have been through a number of ‘sexual revolutions,’ as with the era of this work; each with transgressive targets and social dynamics of their own.

Sex in Civilization edited by Samuel Schmalhausen and V.F. Calverton. The Macaulay Company Publishers, New York. 1929.

Contents: Preface, Introduction by Havelock Ellis, I) SEX THROUGH THE AGES, Sex in Religion Robert Briffault, Sex and Primitive Society by Alejcander Goldenweiser, Women in Transition by Beatrice Forbes-Rohertson Hale, Should All Taboos Be Abolished? by William McDougall, Sex Enlightenment for Civilized Youth by Mary Ware Dennett, Sex and Race Progress by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, II) THE ROLE OF SEX IN BEHAVIOR, The Implications of Sex by Joseph Jastrow, Sex in Dynamic Psychology by A.A. Roback, Sex Censorship and Democracy by Waldo Frank, Wisdom for Parents by Judge Ben. B. Lindsey, Sex and the Law by Huntington Cairns, The Sexual Factor in Divorce by Arthur Garfield Hays, Sex Jealousy and Civilization by J. William Lloyd, III) SEX AND PSYCHO-SOCIOLOGY, Sex and Social Struggle V.F. Calverton, Sex in Education by Harry Elmer Barnes, The Sexual Revolution by Samuel D, Schmalhausen, IV) SEX AND PSYCHOANALYSIS, Narcissism by Frits Witten, The Theory of the Libido by Smith Ely Jelliffe, The Psychoanalytic Approach by Bernard Glueck. The Psychoanalysis of Asceticism by E. Boyd Barrett, Freud’s Theory of Sex: A Criticism by Abraham Myersan, V) THE CLINICAL ASPECTS OF SEX, The Civilizing Force of Birth Control by Margaret Sanger, Sex in the Adolescent Girl by Phyllis Blanchard, Physical Disabilities in Wives by G.V. Hamilton and Kenneth Macgowan, Sex and Insanity by J. Blake Eggen, Sex and Normal Human Nature by Ira S. Wile, Sex Consciousness in the Child by C. Elizabeth Goldsmith, The Art of Love by William J, Fielding, VI) SEX IN POETRY AND FICTION, Note on the Poetry of Sex by Arthur Davison Ficke, Sex and the Novel by Robert Morss Lovett, Biographical Notes of Contributors, Bibliography, Index. 720 pages.

Samuel Schmalhausen (1890–1964), began his career teaching high school English in New York City public schools, for which he was dismissed for ‘disloyalty’ in 1917. His active union organizing and Socialist Party membership contributing. With attention from his termination, and the championing by Upton Sinclair, he turned to his interest in Marxism, sex, and psychoanalysis and opened an institution for its study. He soon began a long collaboration V.F. Calverton and together were central to the Modern Quarterly, and later Modern Monthly magazine. Schmalhausen and Calverton would develop a political rift in the 30s as the magazine’s focus changed to a greater emphasis on political radicalism and left debate. Samuel Schmalhausen would leave the magazine in the mid 1930s.

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