The Social Emergency: Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.0

Word count: 263K words
Chapters: 27

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Social Emergency: Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals by Eliot and FosterAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: HQ: Social sciences: The family, Marriage, Sex and Gender, Release Date: May 18, 2005

Editor's review

The Social Emergency: Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals is an early essay collection on sex education and morals, categorized under social sciences: family, marriage, and gender. The "emergency" in the title points to contemporary anxieties about sexual health, youth education, and public morality; the essays discuss these from the perspectives of hygiene, ethics, and social management. Its value lies not in offering contemporary conclusions but in showing how sex education became a public issue in the early twentieth-century English-speaking world, making it a primary source for observing shifts in social attitudes. The writing carries a distinct period tone and moral assumptions, some of which will feel alien to today's readers—precisely why it is better read as a historical text than as a practical guide. The Project Gutenberg edition allows easy keyword searching, making it suitable for readers in social history, history of education, and gender studies for source comparison, as well as for those interested in the style of early public debate.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students in social history, history of education, or gender history who need primary sources
Readers interested in early twentieth-century ideas about sex education and public morality
Researchers who need an English historical text for keyword searching and discourse analysis
English-language readers curious about the style of early writing on public issues

Not a good fit for

Parents and teachers seeking contemporary scientific sex education knowledge or parenting guidance
General readers hoping for directly applicable sexual health advice
Readers who find period prejudice and moralizing tone difficult to tolerate

Reading tips

Treat it as a sample of historical discourse; read the table of contents first to grasp the distribution of topics
Note recurring keywords and moral assumptions while reading, and keep discourse-analysis notes
Read alongside contemporary sex education materials to identify shifts in thinking rather than judge right and wrong
Pick individual essays by topic; sequential reading from start to finish is not necessary

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this book be used as a sex education reference today?

Not recommended. It is an early twentieth-century collection whose framework, terminology, and moral assumptions belong to that context, and some views are clearly distant from contemporary consensus. It is better understood as a historical document showing how that society discussed sexual health and morals; for practical knowledge, choose contemporary publications.

Are all the essays by the same author?

Sources indicate the book collects essays associated with Eliot and Foster, making it a multi-author research collection rather than a single-author monograph. Perspectives and emphases may differ between essays; noting authorship and topic focus helps capture the collection's internal differences.

How difficult is the English? Can non-specialist readers manage it?

The text is early twentieth-century expository English with long sentences, many abstract nouns, and period social and hygiene terminology, which non-specialists will find demanding. Readers with experience in English social science texts might try a short essay; otherwise, begin with an introduction or summaries of each essay before tackling the original.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.