The "spectre of communism" which Karl Marx confidently evoked in 1848 is now nothing more than a ghostly and ghastly nightmare, without form or substance. This is because working people have developed a love-hate relationship with capitalism. They hate insecurity, inequality, and greed, and love civic and political freedom. They love mass consumption, and accept the logic of commerce. Barreling along through wars, revolutions, epidemics, and crises of all sorts, working people in their millions have consistently dumfounded and dismayed the left, by their refusal to countenance any alternative to the capitalist mode of life. We have to ask: Is it possible to reverse this reality, and once again talk of the necessity of communism?

Is sexuality innate or socially determined? How has the history of sexuality been constructed? What are the contributions to notions of sex and sexuality of feminists, lesbians and gays? And in what ways have the Right sought to synthesize biology and society in their desire for order?;Don Milligan's survey introduces the literature and perspectives of writers from Freud to Scruton and provides a critical commentary along with explanation of the issues involved. Locating the history of sexuality at the intersection of philosophical, psychoanalytical, sociological, anthropological and demographic practice, he explores post-modern and deconstructionist approaches and the tensions between the essentialism of biology and the pluralism of social construction.