A long, cool and entertaining look at sexual attitudes, customs and practices in all the world's major civilizations past and present. Drawing on art, architecture, literature and theology, as well as a whole alphabet of scientific disciplines, the author places that great imperative of humanity - the sex drive - in its widest historical perspective. More than a history of sex alone it is a history of relationships between the sexes and a history of how sex and sexuality have influenced the whole course of human development.