Word: baring
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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History Laid Bare: Love, Sex and Perversity from the Ancient...
Tidbits like this fill the pages of History Laid Bare, a chronicle of "Love, sex and Perversity" which begins in 1400 B.C. and continues up to 1920s America. After that, presumably, there is too much perversity to fit in one book...
Author Richard Zacks set out to "put flesh and blood on the bare bones of history." While this isn't exactly history, it is ideal bedside reading. Zacks doesn't set out to reach any conclusions about history or sexual mores. He tries to titillate and surprise; and he succeeds...
...best, History Laid Bare is novel enough to hold the reader's prurient interest...
History Laid Bare's only failing is its author's refusal to acknowledge that the book works best as a procrastination tool. In the introduction and in the running commentary which links the anecdotes together, Zacks sets himself up as a righteous liberator of history from "Victorians and other prudish scholars" who took out all the good parts in history. Zacks' condescension towards his subjects is irritating. He would have done better to get out of the way and let his ribald material speak for itself...