Impotence and Virginity Through the Ages

By PETER MONAGHAN

THE TROUBLE WITH MEN: Impotence was with us long before Viagra and Cialis. And curing it has never been quite as simple as popping a pill, reports Angus McLaren in Impotence: A Cultural History (University of Chicago Press).

The affliction has been explained over the centuries as the result of excessive masturbation, coitus interruptus,...