By Angus McLaren. 332 pp., illustrated. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2007. $30. ISBN 978-0-226-50076-8.
Advertisements for Viagra would have us believe that impotence— or at least erectile dysfunction — and the compromisesin lifestyle that it leads to could soon be a thing of the past.Almost a decade after the drug went on the market, however,we are still waiting, and Angus McLaren's historical analysisof impotence indicates that the wait is unlikely to end anytime soon. His goal is "to understand the main tendencies thathave historically structured representations of masculine sexualinadequacy," and he shows that what constitutes impotence isculturally and historically variable. It is specific to particular. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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