An interesting look at censorship in the cinema, if only slightly dry. I honestly just wish this would've been wider and not paid all of its focus to one wound-tight man.

As a teacher, I celebrate Banned Books Week every year. I consider myself very well-versed in book censorship, which is why I am embarrassed to admit that, before reading this book, I had never heard of Anthony Comstock. Thankfully Werbel is here to fill in that gap in my knowledge.

This is a biography about Anthony Comstock, an anti-vice activist from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. I enjoyed reading about Anthony's early life and how his Christian upbringing led him to become America's first professional censor.

He was an avid critic of art, theatre, and literature. This would occasionally work against Comstock. As he was the go-to man for all things obscenity, many artists, writers and producers eagerly sought his badge of disapproval. Once they made Comstock's list, individuals would have a handy and convenient guide on where to find vice rather than suppress.

There is a section in the book where the author switches her focus from the biographical details of Comstock's life to an analysis of the paintings/artwork that were deemed obscene. I didn't enjoy this part as much because there did not seem to be any cohesion in the narrative. It just felt like we were moving from one piece of artwork to the next until they all blurred together.

I received a free copy of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m surprised by my less than enthusiastic reaction to this book because it seems like the perfect book I’d love. I think my biggest reserves are due to the murkiness on what the book is about. Is about Anthony Comstock, or is it about the history of sexual censorship? It gives the impression of both, but sometimes there are pages on pages of analyzing different paintings that were considered controversial to the time or things of that ilk. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can feel a bit like two analytic pieces being shoved into a single book. Amy Werbel’s interest in the subject as well as the research that went into it are evident on every page, and she’s done such a lovely job of presenting her research in this book.

This isn’t a criticism of the book itself or the author, but the formatting for the Kindle version of this e-galley was terrible. All kinds of punctuation, capitalization, indentation, etc. errors that made it extremely difficult to read. Sometimes the sentence would skip down two lines in the middle of a paragraph, so then there was this random broken line (occasionally with a page number thrown into that empty space?) in a paragraph that would pick up two lines down. It was extremely annoying to try to get through in that regard. Again, this isn’t a criticism of the author or the actual content of the book because this is solely about the formatting!

This book on Anthony Comstock sounded so interesting, but it just wasn't as good as it should have been. It's hard to make history exciting sometimes, but the liveliness of prose and the art of storytelling can transform even the dullest topics into gripping narratives. The topic (Sex! Nudity! Morals to the wind!) gave enough titillation that in better hands it could have been something better. I hate to give bad ratings to histories when the work is solid, but I'm disappointed.

This is a great account of Anthony Comstock's career, one spent obsessing over and trying to shut down sexual freedoms ranging from masturbation to birth control. Comstock notoriously raided bars, art studios, the mail, and private homes in search of what he considered obscene material, which could be paintings of nudes, sculptures, pornographic photographs, and erotic novels. Werbel examines Comstock's motivations, his successes, failures, and legacy in America in a highly readable and entertaining manner, including images of many of the items Comstock sought to suppress.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book, the content was interesting but the pacing of it was quite slow. It was more my error than the writer, as it is probably one I shouldn't have requested! A big yes for fans of American history though!

This is the story of how Anthony comstocks life and how he became the new York Secretary for the suppression of vice though it lags at times it's well worth reading

I think this book could really work for the Composition classroom. It is well written and interesting, but in addition to showing a history of the treatment of sex in America, this text provides a wealth of discussion and writing topics, as well as providing a way to encourage students to draw parallels between history and contemporary America. Will use!

This book was FASCINATING. As a history major, I find this US legal history to be supremely interesting. The narrative style of nonfiction was enjoyable to read.

Although the topic sounded interesting, I was unable to get through this book. There were so many typos, particularly instances of missing capitalization and punctuation (3-5+ on every single page, more than I've ever seen in any e-galley or physical galley) that it was very difficult for me to focus on the content. The content itself was rather in-depth, perhaps too much so. It was very hard to get through the part about Comstock's childhood and the focus on small town religious culture, which, while relevant, did not need to be examined in that much depth. However, I feel that if the capitalization errors were fixed and the material was introduced more quickly, I might have a very different experience with this book.

An exploration into the life and work of Anthony Comstock, famous or infamous for his work in suppressing vice, and compelling Americans to talk about the differences between art and pornography and the line between free speech and obscenity.

The author has done much research and demonstrates it well. The reader is given insight into Comstock's origins and the sources of his motivations; his career is systematically explained with plenty of primary source details provided. Comstock is well contextualized as are those who opposed him and the changes in society which took place during his life.

In the end the author proves quite unsympathetic to her subject and the work is written partly to explain how we got to where we are in terms of concerns about obscenity and the First Amendment arguments which led to expansion of free speech and free expression, but also to condemn not only Comstock but all who would come after him in their concerns. The author concludes with a desire to make sure that free speech and free expression are preserved from zealous neo-Comstocks; I am sure she has Ashcroft and his covering of Lady Justice in mind.

And, to that end, she has a point for her concern; it is one thing to have personal scruples, and it is quite another to attempt to impose them on everyone else. What is disappointing is that there is no counterbalance, no concern as to whether unbridled free expression is really a great or healthy thing for a society, and whether there should be some set of standards for public decency so as to allow some people, if they so choose, to maintain more strict standards about what they see and consume than others. And there is certainly no discussion in the work about how Comstockery may come from the Left in its own zeal in attempting to reform morals and suppress what is seen as vice, offensive literature and ideas, and the like.

Such is not an attempt to justify Comstock in his methods, approach, or excess; but if Comstock is going to be held up as a warning about what happens when someone with an understandable concern is given too much power and influence to shut down and shame, then that warning should be broadcast across the spectrum, not giving a pass to your own tribe and signaling one's fear of the other tribe.

Also, erotic Victorian imagery present within the book.

There is an old saying, “A Puritan is someone who is deathly afraid that someone, somewhere, may be having fun.” When it comes to sexual fun there are always humorless, authoritarian types who wish to impose their own version of morality on everyone else. In the late nineteenth century the leading proponent of puritanical morality in the United States was a man called Anthony Comstock who headed up the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice.

Anthony Comstock was born in Connecticut in 1844 and raised in a very strict home and church. This influence would be a foundational pillar of his character; he considered himself to be a soldier for Christ and the Christian religion and dedicated himself to enforcing his views on the entire nation. Sexual behavior was his bugbear; he held that sexual activity, including masturbation, was always wrong except between married people for the purpose of procreation. (He must have been tons of fun as a husband.)

In New York City, after the Civil War, Comstock saw pornography and sexual licentiousness on all sides. (Of course, he was looking hard for it.) He, with the backing of a number of prominent men, eventually started the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice which he headed. Comstock became the country’s leading crusader against “vice,” not just pornography, but anything which he and his friends considered indecent, including contraceptives, sex toys (including dildoes), and abortion. Comstock managed to get himself attached to the United States Post Office, so that he was able to use the power of the federal government and the mail to prosecute offenders.

Inevitably, there was pushback. Not all American adults agreed with Comstock and his coterie, and plenty of them refused to give way to the contemporary Puritanism. Werbel makes the case quite convincingly that in reaction to Comstock, “Comstockery,” and the excessive actions of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, that artists, writers, journalists, lawyers, free speech advocates and the like pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, boundaries which most probably would have remained fuzzy or unexplored if not for Comstock.

“Lust on Trial” is a very interesting book about a subject which is little known today, but which has influence on twenty-first century life. I highly recommend it for those interested in social history, free speech, censorship, or the modern conflicts between those who would impose their narrow view of what is proper and the rest of us.