"A superlatively researched, richly detailed history of sexual science from its start in the late-1800s through the mid-1900s. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice
"[Vita Sexualis] provides a strikingly affirmative alternative to much recent postmodern discourse . . . For any student of gay history and liberation, this refreshing work will prove instructive and will, I predict, be viewed as a key text pointing toward a new literature on the revolutionary nature of gay identity arising after three decades of nihilistic post-modernism."--Gay & Lesbian Review
"This book includes interesting concepts and theories about a long-forgotten person of interest in Western Sexology."--ISIS
"Vita Sexualis offers an alternative historical interpretation of early sexual science." --H-Net Reviews
"This book is a unique historical-to-contemporary overview of insurrectionary currents and a welcome contribution to contemporary anarchist studies." --European History Quarterly
"An intriguing study with a quite synthetic thesis and extremely erudite analysis. Will be of interest to a wide range of scholars: historians of medicine, science, sexuality, various branches of philosophy, as well as cultural and social historians of Europe."--Robert Beachy, author of Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity
"Ralph Leck tackles the contributions of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs to sexual science with erudition and passion. Vita Sexualis gives Ulrichs his rightful place in the story of the struggle to conceptualize homosexuality as a natural sexual variation and to forge a politics of inclusion and equality for sexual minorities. No one interested in the history of sexual thought can afford to miss this book."--Leila J. Rupp, author of Sapphistries: A Global History of Love between Women