Haeberle's The Sex Atlas: New Popular Reference Edition is a comprehensive guide to the biological, behavioral, and social aspects of human sexuality. The book is well organized with essay-like chapters that offer accurate, precise outlines of many subjects, an easy-access, chapter-coordinated bibliography, and a glossary of sexual slang terms. The bibliography is also supplemented by reference and recommended-reading lists at the end of each chapter, providing, overall, an excellent starting point for readers who wish to know more about a particular topic. The writing style is effective and quite clear in the sections dealing with anatomy, biological processes, and other basic subjects. The tone in other chapters is more personal and assertive where Haeberle argues against repressive, out-of-date notions of sexuality. The chapters dealing with factual information would make an excellent reference tool for non-specialists. But there is a considerable problem with Haeberle's handling of the history sections. In sections on men's and women's social roles and on the marriage and family in historical perspective Haeberle tends to present popular ideas of the past that do not appear to result from any great depth of research. In those sections (over half the book) in which Haeberle presents opinions combined with a very selective group of historical facts to construct arguments that generalize from history, the reader acquires the impression that his book is quite unreliable.
In the sections dealing with anatomy. physiology, and behavior Haeberle provides basic information in an easily-accessed format. The technical level of his descriptions is clearly intended for the general reader and the materials indicated for further reading seem to be more than adequate.
But in the portions of the book in which he treats the history of social attitudes toward sexual behavior Haeberle becomes a less than reliable guide. One area in w...