Event Dime

Fierce Desires: Variation, Conflict, and Pleasure in the History of America with Rebecca L. Davis

When:

February 24, 2026 · 7:00 PM

Where:

the University of Delaware

Source:

Creative Philadelphia Arts Access Calendar

From puritans to polyamory, Professor Rebecca Davis explores the story of America’s sexual past. In the United States today, we have government decrees that there are only two sexes, debates about “trad wives” and polyamory, and frequent references to the nation’s “puritan” past. But in her latest book—and in this talk—Professor Rebecca L. Davis argues that 17th century Puritans are a weak precedent for how the history of sexuality has unfolded in the United States. Into the 1800s, the United St