Kocks leaves no stone unturned in upsetting today's definition of 'Puritanical.' From political sex scandals to polyamorous poetry, New England's first citizens evidently had plenty in common with today's Americans. Those who think of the 1760's as an era of widspread chastity should brace themselves for surprise before reading Temptations..."
Temptations is a fun, fast read with tons of beautiful illustrations — many of them from the Kinsey Institute archives. But what's most striking isn't the pictures of pornographic china or plaster dildos. It's the way the book points our our misconceptions of a sexually repressed national past."
— Kinsey Confidential, The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction
Read a profile of Dorothee by Elaine Jarvik in
The Salt Lake Tribune:
With a nod to the founders of our nation, Dorothee Kocks at first thought about calling her new ebook The Fondling Fathers.
She settled instead on Such Were My Temptations: Bawdy Americans, 1760-1830. Still, her point is the same: the country's early citizens, including the Puritans we often define as prudish, were part of what some scholars call 'America's first sexual revolution.'"
'Words of freedom filled the air,' writes Kocks about the Revolutionary War period and the decades that followed. 'The pursuit of happiness became a national agenda. In this context, people questioned the rules about sex and marriage.' Her ebook is a short compendium of often shocking drawings, engravings, poems and other erotica from that period. Most of it is fairly tame, by modern standards, although surprising nonetheless.
This foray into the sexual proclivities of early Americans came as a surprise to Kocks..."
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I've come to see both Puritans and e-books in a whole new light, thanks to historian and author Dorothee E. Kocks and her media-enhanced e-book... While graphic in places, the e-book's aim is pleasantly academic rather than pornographic. It's smart, fun and challenges widely held assumptions."
— Angela Decker, Ashland (Oregon) Daily Tidings
An enhanced ebook on early American erotica? Yes, it's difficult not to grin, and yet, one quickly realizes the seriousness with which its author has researched, written, and designed Such Were My Temptations.... a scholarly Fifty Shades of Grey..."
—Rebecca Rego Barry, Fine Books Magazine
