All Outputs (6)

Pornographers, hacks, and blackmailers in interwar France : obscene reading and writing in the Third Republic (2024)
Book
Cocks, H. (2024). Pornographers, hacks, and blackmailers in interwar France : obscene reading and writing in the Third Republic. Bloomsbury Publishing

H.G. Cocks reveals how publishers and writers, both mainstream and clandestine, tried to cash in on the vogue for erotic literature which surfaced at the time. Though the vast majority of what was produced was no more than risqué or saucy, Cocks show... Read More about Pornographers, hacks, and blackmailers in interwar France : obscene reading and writing in the Third Republic.

The Sporting Paper and the Culture of Popular Conservatism in Edwardian Britain (2024)
Journal Article
Cocks, H. (2024). The Sporting Paper and the Culture of Popular Conservatism in Edwardian Britain. Parliamentary History, 43(2), 207-225

Late-Victorian and Edwardian Popular Conservatism is now mainly seen as a cultural-ideological form, and this article aims to reconstruct one aspect of this ethos by focusing on the use of sport, especially horse racing, as a means of political diffe... Read More about The Sporting Paper and the Culture of Popular Conservatism in Edwardian Britain.

Visions of Sodom: Religion, Homoerotic Desire, and the End of the World in England, c. 1550-1850 (2017)
Book
Cocks, H. (2017). Visions of Sodom: Religion, Homoerotic Desire, and the End of the World in England, c. 1550-1850. University of Chicago Press

The book of Genesis records the fiery fate of Sodom and Gomorrah—a storm of fire and brimstone was sent from heaven and, for the wickedness of the people, God destroyed the cities “and all the plains, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that w... Read More about Visions of Sodom: Religion, Homoerotic Desire, and the End of the World in England, c. 1550-1850.

Conspiracy to corrupt public morals and the ‘unlawful’ status of homosexuality in Britain after 1967 (2016)
Journal Article
Cocks, H. (2016). Conspiracy to corrupt public morals and the ‘unlawful’ status of homosexuality in Britain after 1967. Social History, 41(3), 267-284. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2016.1180899

The common law offence of conspiracy to corrupt public morals has a long though controversial history in English law. It was a charge mainly employed against obscenity, procuring prostitution, keeping a disorderly house, public indecency and public m... Read More about Conspiracy to corrupt public morals and the ‘unlawful’ status of homosexuality in Britain after 1967.

'The Social Picture of Our Own Times': Reading Obscene Magazines in 1940s Britain (2016)
Journal Article
COCKS, H. (2016). 'The Social Picture of Our Own Times': Reading Obscene Magazines in 1940s Britain. Twentieth Century British History, 27(2), 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hww008

The market in what was regarded as obscene literature, 1940s and 1950s Britain was dominated by magazines containing female nudes and risqué fiction. What can we know about the readers and consumers of this type of pornography before the 1960s? We ca... Read More about 'The Social Picture of Our Own Times': Reading Obscene Magazines in 1940s Britain.

The Pre-History of Print and Online Dating, c. 1690-1990 (2015)
Book Chapter
Cocks, H. (2015). The Pre-History of Print and Online Dating, c. 1690-1990. In I. A. Degim, J. Johnson, & T. Fu (Eds.), Online Courtship: Interpersonal Interactions Across Borders (17-28). Institute of Network Cultures