Impotence : a cultural history / Angus McLaren.

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2007.

xvii, 332 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

The impenetrable penetrator: manhood in Greece and Rome -- When "desire refuses service": impotence in the Christian west -- The "infirmity of others": laughing at fumblers in early modern Europe -- "Shameful to wives, ridiculous for husbands, and unworthy of tribunals": impotence in the age of reason -- Neurasthenia, decadence, and nineteenth-century manhood -- Marketing manly vigor: Victorian medicine versus quackery -- Sigmund Freud, Marie Stopes, and "the love of civilized man" -- Sex glands, rejuvenation, and eugenics between the wars -- The "impotence boom": from Kinsey to Masters and Johnson -- Viagra: hard science or hard sell?

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-318) and index.