Elizabeth Reis

When exploring the course of events at Salem, historians have often ignored assumptions about gender embedded within Puritan cosmology. The author of this work examines how gender systems cut across religious belief, showing the proscription of women's 'sinful natures' and men's 'natural sins'.

Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England

Damned Women

Drawing from her experience as a teaching pastor in Chicago, Laura Truax counsels men and women in the art of coming undone. While no one wishes for the harrowing moment when the fabric of life unravels, there is hope when it happens. Undone is a guide to letting yourself go so God can put you back together as a part of his story.

An American History of Intersex

Bodies in Doubt

This renowned history of intersex in America has been comprehensively updated to reflect recent shifts in attitudes, bioethics, and medical and legal practices. In Bodies in Doubt, Elizabeth Reis traces the changing definitions, perceptions, and medical management of intersex (atypical sex development) in America from the colonial period to the present. Arguing that medical practice must be understood within its broader cultural context, Reis demonstrates how deeply physicians have been influenced by social anxieties about marriage, heterosexuality, and same-sex desire throughout American history In this second edition, Reis adds two new chapters, a new preface, and a revised introduction to assess recent dramatic shifts in attitudes, bioethics, and medical and legal practices. Human rights organizations have declared early genital surgeries a form of torture and abuse, but doctors continue to offer surgical "repair," and parents continue to seek it for their children. While many are hearing the human rights call, controversies persist, and Reis explains why best practices in this field remain fiercely contested.

The second edition of "American Sexual His"tories features an updated collection of sixteen articles by prominent historians and their corresponding primary sources that investigate issues related to human sexuality in America from the colonial era to the present day. Reflecting the myriad ways historians interpret and analyze sexuality and sexual trends, the essays offer in-depth exploration of topics such as contraception, prostitution, interracial relationships, same-sex desire, reproductive politics, and intersex and transgender history. Taken as a whole, the essays richly illustrate how the evolution of sexuality in America is a product of an ongoing negotiation of moral values and shifting political and economic circumstances. The chapters are arranged chronologically and include introductions by editor Elizabeth Reis which lend clarity and add historical context to the major articles and the supporting documents that follow. The carefully selected couplings of essays and primary sources allow readers to evaluate historical documents for themselves, test the interpretations of historians, and draw independent conclusions. Both scholarly and highly accessible, "American Sexual Histories" offers illuminating insights into the complex evolution of sex and sexuality in America.

American Sexual Histories

Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America is a collection of twelve articles that explore crucial events in the history of witch-hunting and its demonization of women in American and American women's own use of witchcraft as a source of identity and strength, as well as the complicated relationship between the two. Beginning with the accused 'witches' of colonial America, Spellbound extends its focus through the nineteenth century to explore women's involvement with alternative spiritualities, and culminates with examinations of the contemporary feminist neopagan and Goddess movements.

Woman and Witchcraft in America

Spellbound

Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America is a collection of twelve articles that revisit crucial events in the history of witchcraft and spiritual feminism in this country. Beginning with the "witches" of colonial America, Spellbound extends its focus through the nineteenth century to explore women's involvement with alternative spiritualities, and culminates with examinations of the contemporary feminist neopagan and Goddess movements. A valuable source for those interested in women's history, women's studies, and religious history, Spellbound is also a crucial addition to the bookshelf of anyone tracing the evolution of spiritualism in America.

Elizabeth Reis

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