Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation

The book's wide range begins with the prehistory of solitary sex in the Bible and ends with third-wave feminism, conceptual artists and the Web. It explains how and why this humble and once obscure means of sexual gratification became the evil twin - or the perfect instance - of the great virtues of modern humanity and commercial society: individual moral autonomy and privacy, creativity and the imagination, abundance and desire.