The Thorny Path ― Pornography in Early Twentieth-century Britain

Between 1900 and 1945, Britain and its empire experienced significant technological and social changes that altered its media and entertainment landscape. One aspect of British culture that underwent these changes was pornography. While illegal and socially reviled, the pornography trade adapted and flourished during this period. In The Thorny Path Jamie Stoops situates changes within the pornography trade in the context of an increasingly transnational world. Those who traded in pornography circled the globe, journeying from Britain to its colonies, from colonial holdings to continental Europe, from Europe to North America. In the process, pornographers and their customers developed new vocabularies and norms with which to negotiate their trade. Based on extensive archival research, this book grounds questions of transnationalism and heteronormativity in the day-to-day lives of low-level pornographers and consumers. Stoops’s focus on street-level interactions within the trade is balanced with an analysis of state policies, legal regulations, and debates about obscenity, illustrating the interplay between enforcers of mainstream moral standards and those who represented deviant sexual practices. Raising questions of queerness and sexual normativity, The Thorny Path links these issues to contemporary conversations about pornography, obscenity, and sexuality. It offers timely historical context for current and vibrant debates surrounding marginalized sexualities, gender roles, and pornography in a time of rapid technological and social change.

Jamie Stoops is assistant professor of history at Lone Star College-University Park.