It may be surprising to learn that a push to outlaw polygamy in America in the late 1800’s was less about morality and more about state-building, or domestic imperialism. 

“The government made the decision to link American citizenship to monogamous marriage and force assimilation” explained Rebecca Davis, Miller Family Endowed Early Career Professor of History and associate professor of women and gender studies. 

Davis examines our country’s sexual past in her recent book, Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America (Norton, Sept. 3, 2024.) She received a 2022 Public Scholars Award that enabled her to complete the book in 2024, the first major work of its kind in more than three decades.

It comes at a time when issues of gender roles, sexual rights and sexual health have again been front and center in major political and policy debates, with transgender and reproductive rights in question, and notions of “traditional” gender roles gaining traction while non-monogamous relationships are also seemingly more prevalent. 

These issues aren’t new, yet the conversations around them are, according to Davis. 

“Since 1988 there has been a ton of new research in the field, new ways of thinking, different questions to ask and different people to center in these stories,” she said.

“By putting people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and women at the center of these stories, we open up a different perspective than the white male experience.” 

Using a storytelling, rather than a comprehensive, encyclopedic approach, Fierce Desires earned national attention, recognized as one of the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2024, a Washington Post Notable Book of 2024 and a Kirkus Review Best Book of 2024.  

“People have always wanted to have the sex that they want to have,” she said, but the concept of sexual identity as an inherent part of who we are is relatively new. “We used to be more willing to align what we wanted with what our community wanted from us. There is a modern shift to people following their internal measure of what is right, even if it is in conflict with what the community wants.”