Marriage and Morals was published by Allen and Unwin in London and by Horace Liveright in New York in 1929. The book surveys the history of sexual morality from ancient civilizations through Christianity to the present, and argues that most of what Western civilization considers “moral” in matters of sex is actually the product of taboo, superstition, and the deliberate suppression of knowledge for purposes of social control.
Russell’s specific proposals — which seem mild today but were explosive in 1929 — include: comprehensive sex education for children; universal access to contraception; the decriminalization of homosexuality; easier divorce; the acknowledgment that pre-marital and extra-marital sex are not inherently immoral; and the separation of marriage (as a social institution for raising children) from sexual exclusivity (which Russell considered an unrealistic demand that caused more suffering than it prevented).
The book is distinguished from earlier free-love manifestos by Russell’s intellectual rigor: he traces the history of each taboo to its origins (usually in patriarchal anxiety about paternity), shows how Christianity intensified rather than invented sexual repression, and argues that the consequent guilt and hypocrisy do more damage to human happiness than sexual freedom would. He is particularly fierce about the effects of sexual ignorance on women: the Victorian system, he argues, created marriages in which wives were terrified and husbands ignorant, and the resulting mutual dissatisfaction poisoned domestic life.
The book’s consequences were real. In 1940, Russell was appointed to a position at the City College of New York; a New York judge, responding to a taxpayer’s lawsuit, revoked the appointment on the grounds that Russell’s writings (specifically Marriage and Morals) advocated immorality and were unfit to be associated with a public institution. The decision — which Russell could not appeal because he was not a party to the suit — effectively exiled him from American academic life for several years.
Collecting Marriage and Morals
First edition (Allen and Unwin, London, 1929): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- UK first edition, fine/fine: $200–$500
- Very good: $75–$200
- US first (Liveright, 1929): $100–$250