Current Research
My main interest is in the social and cultural history of Europe since the seventeenth century. Broadly speaking, my interest is in the rise of "bio-power," that is, the attempt on the part of states and their agencies to govern the range of bodily processes associated with life, death, reproduction, and sexuality. Also, I explore the ways in which sexuality emerged as a distinct domain of knowledge and a means of organizing personal identity in the modern period. My first book, Nameless Offences (2003) studied the cultural politics of male homosexuality. I have also written about religion and sexuality (Visions of Sodom, 2017). More recenlty, I have developed an interest in French history. My latest book is a history of reading obscene texts in interwar France.
Publications
Books
Pornographers, Hacks, and Blackmailers: Obscene Reading and Writing in Interwar France (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Visions of Sodom: Religion, Homoerotic Desire, and the End of the World in England, c. 1550-1850 (University of Chicago Press, 2017)
Classified: The Secret History of the Personal Column (Random House, 2009)
The Modern History of Sexuality (edited with Matt Houlbrook, Palgrave, 2005)
Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in 19th Century England (Tauris, 2003, revised ed. 2009)
Sculpture of Greater Manchester (with Terry Wyke, Liverpool University Press, 2003)
Articles
"The Sporting Weekly and Popular Conservatism in Edwardian England", Parliamentary History (2023)
Review of Simon Avery and Katherine Graham, Sex, Time and Place: Queer Histories of London, c 1850 to the Present (Bloomsbury, 2016) IHR Reviews in History, http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/2086
"Conspiracy to Corrupt Public Morals and the 'Unlawful' Status of Homosexuality in Britain after 1967", Social History 41, 3 (August 2016) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071022.2016.1180899
"'The Social Picture of Our Own Times': Reading Obscene Magazines in 1940s Britain," Twentieth Century British History (18 March 2016)
"Horrid Crimes, Unnatural Offences", East Midlands History and Heritage 2 (December 2015)
. In: I. ALEV DEGIM and JAMES HENRY JOHNSON, eds., Online Courtship: Interpersonal Interactions Across Borders Institute of Network Cultures (2015)
". In: ROBERT A. SEGAL, and R. Von Stuckrad, (eds.), Vocabulary for the Study of Religion Brill (2015).
"Wilde and the Law". In: KERRY POWELL and PETER RABY, eds., Wilde in Context Cambridge University Press. (Oxford: OUP, 2013.)
"" Social History. 38, 1 (February, 2013), 66-88
"" Media History 18, 1 (February 2012): Special Issue, edited with Matt Rubery
Media History. 18, 3, (2012)
, Institute of Historical Research, Reviews in History. Available at: <http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1171>
Twentieth Century British History. 22(1), (2011): 114-119
"," In: TOULALAN, S. and FISHER, K., eds.,The Routledge History of Sex and the Body, 1500 to the Present Routledge (2012). 38-54
"The Discovery of Sodom, 1851", Representations 112 (Fall 2010)
"Evolutionary Psychology Meets the History of Sexuality", Contemporary British History 24, 1 (Spring 2010)
"," "Beyond Britain", special issue of Victorian Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Victorian Studies (2010).
"" History Workshop Journal 68, 1 (2009), 293-302
"," History Compass, 5(March 2007),
"," In: JULIE-MARIE STRANGE AND FRANCESCA CARNEVALLI, eds., 20th Century Britain (Pearson, 2007).
"," Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies 190 (February 2006), 121-146
"," Gender & History 18, 1(2006) 87-107.
"," Historical Journal 49, 4 (2006),1211-1227
"," In: M. COOK, ed., A Gay History of Britain (Greenwood, 2006).
. In: , ed.,International Encyclopaedia of Queer Culture (Routledge, 2006)
"Homosexuality in Europe, 1914-2004 and AIDS in Europe 1914-2004," In: JAY WINTER AND JOHN MERRIMAN, ed., Encyclopaedia of Europe: 1914 - 2004 (Gale, 2006)
","Social History 29(4 (2004), 465-484
"," Media History 10, 1 (2004), 3-17
"," In: ROSE MELIKAN, ed., Domestic and International Trials, 1700-2000: The Trial in History vol 2 (Manchester University Press, 2003), 36-53.
"," Journal of the History of Sexuality. 11, 3 (2002), 457-482
Gender and History. 13, 2, (2001), 191-223.
Reviews
Review of Dominic Janes, Picturing the Closet, Cultural and Social History (January 2017) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14780038.2017.1281615
Review of Marilyn Morris, Sex, Money and Personal Character in Eighteenth-Century British Politics, Journal of the History of Sexuality 25, 2 (May 2016), 372-4.
Review of Kate Fisher and Rebecca Langlands, (eds.), Sex, Knowledge, and Receptions of the Past, Classical Review (2016), http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=CAR
Review of Dominic Janes, Picturing the Closet, Cultural and Social History (2016) http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfcs20/current
Review of Matt Cook, Queer Domesticities, London Journal 40, 1 (2015), http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/0305803414Z.00000000060
Journal of Social History (2013).
History of Psychiatry. 24, 3 (2013), 369-70
Journal of Social History (2013)
History: The Journal of the Historical Association (2012)
History: Journal of the Historical Association (2012)
, British Scholar (2011)
Archives (2011)
London Journal (2011)
Review of Julie Peakman, Sexual Perversions, 1670-1890, Archives (October 2010), 81-83.
Review of Adrian Bingham, Family Newspapers Media History (2010)
At: H-Albion (2008); Url:
At: H-Albion (2008); Url:
Review of Seth Koven, Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London, Journal of Modern History (December 2006), 947-9 http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/511215
At: H-Albion (2005);
Review of Alan Bray, The Friend, Albion 36, 3 (Fall 2004), 566-567 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9018022&fileId=S0095139000008024
"," Journal of Contemporary History, 39, 4 (2004),657-666
Review of Ben Shephard, Kitty and the Prince, Daily Mail
At: Reviews in History (2003); Url:
Media
Serialisation of Classified, The Times, February 2010.
"" BBC Who Do You Think You Are Magazine 19 March 2009,70-74
"Be My Chum," Gay Times, (2004)