“Delightful . . . . as a trained art historian, [Werbel] fills in the blanks with a close examination of the subtle and not so subtle ways that artists and activists sought to get around censorship.” Judith Giesberg, American Historical Review
“Werbel is at her best in analyzing the many visuals she provides. Her descriptions and explanations superbly show the atmosphere of the time as well as its many cross currents.” Laura Wittern-Keller New York History
“Werbel’s intensely researched and thought-provoking work highlights the many trials and tribulations of both prosecutor and prosecuted, exemplifying the ineffectiveness of censorship and the strength of a nation supported by honesty and freedom of speech rather than any one definition of purity.” Christine Schultz-Richert, Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy
“With her meticulously researched study of Comstock’s life and work, Werbel provides both a biography of America’s most dogged anti-smut crusader and a terrifically concrete account of the warring effects of censorship in this country . . . . Werbel has produced a book that will be useful for historians of American art, law, and visual culture alike . . . . [her] book seems particularly urgent right now.” Mary Campbell, Panorama
“Werbel, a distinguished art historian, is especially qualified to analyse American visual culture. She gives a richly detailed, deeply researched and lavishly illustrated account of Comstock’s career and legacy.” Elaine Showalter, The Times Literary Supplement
“Historians will appreciate Werbel’s attention to uncovering the stories of everyday Americans who found themselves in Comstock’s crosshairs, and her book will make a lively addition to undergraduate and graduate courses on the histories of art, obscenity, and sexuality.” Kimberley Reilly, Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
“Lust on Trial has its fun side, documenting the long-forgotten netherworld of post–Civil War erotica, both artistic and literary . . . . Unearthing this history is an amazing feat of pop-cultural scholarship.” Anthony Mostrom, Los Angeles Review of Books
“With every one of these captivating stories, Werbel recreates the highly erotic visual culture of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. . . . The seamless link Werbel provides between the nation’s early anti-obscenity battles and current debates over the separation of church and state, rights to privacy, and civil liberties makes Lust on Trial a work more relevant now than ever. As Amy Werbel’s titillating manuscript reveals, Comstock put lust on trial… and lust prevailed.” Marcela Micucci, Gotham Center for New York History
“Making good use of recent monographic studies of mass media and the history of sexuality, the author, an associate professor of the history of art at the Fashion Institute of Technology, places the architect and chief executor of U.S. anti-obscenity law in a thick social and cultural context. Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Education
“Based on an impressive amount of research into both primary and secondary sources, Werbel’s writing possesses a scholarly formality, but also accessibility, elegance, and wit . . . fascinating, page-turning.” Publisher’s Weekly
“Werbel . . . offers a richly detailed examination of Comstock’s life and mission, which she presents as a cautionary tale for our own time, when evangelical Christianity seeks to impose its values on the nation . . . An incisive history of the futility of censorship.” Kirkus Reviews
“Werbel’s art history lens draws particular attention to the visual material Comstock found unacceptable, including dozens of illustrative examples. VERDICT A thoughtful new addition to the literature on Comstock and 19th-century sexual mores.” – Library Journal
“Amy Werbel’s Lust on Trial offers a brilliant analysis of the life and times of Anthony Comstock, the fiercely religious moralist who led the national campaign to rid the United States of sexual expression from 1873 until his death in 1915. As Werbel powerfully demonstrates, Comstock’s efforts to persuade the nation that such expression “corrupts the mind . . . and damns the soul” perilously threatened our nation’s separation of church and state. This lesson in how religious fanaticism can destroy our freedom is now more important than ever.” Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, and author of Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Centuryand Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime: From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism.
“In this vibrant history, Amy Werbel explores the legal and cultural battles surrounding the censorship of “obscene” materials in late nineteenth and early twentieth century New York. Lust on Trial not only mines the history of censorship and repression in a modernizing America, but also sheds light on its legacy for current debates.” Nadine Strossen, author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship and immediate past president, American Civil Liberties Union (1991–2008)