Turner, David M. 1972–

PERSONAL:

Born 1972. Education: Brasenose College, Oxford, B.A., 1993, D. Phil; University of Durham, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Swansea University, James Callaghan Rm. 104, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales. E-mail—d.m.turner@swansea.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Writer, educator. University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, Wales, began as lecturer, became principal lecturer in history, 1999-2004, history field leader, 2003-04; Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, senior lecturer in history, 2005—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Scouloudi research fellowship and Past and Present postdoctoral research fellowship, both Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

WRITINGS:

Fashioning Adultery: Gender, Sex, and Civility in England, 1660-1740, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with Kevin Stagg) Social Histories of Disability and Deformity, Routledge (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including English Masculinities, 1660-1800, edited by Tim Hitchcock and Michele Cohen, Longman, 1999; Contexts of Conscience in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700, edited by Harald Braun and Edward Vallance, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004; and The Kiss in History, edited by Karen Harvey, Manchester University Press, 2005. Contributor to periodicals, including Continuity and Change, English Historical Review, and Urban History.

SIDELIGHTS:

David M. Turner is senior lecturer in history at Swansea University in Swansea, Wales. He has worked at the University of Glamorgan in Pontypridd, Wales, as a lecturer, principal lecturer in history, and history field leader.

In Fashioning Adultery: Gender, Sex, and Civility in England, 1660-1740, Turner looks at changes in the way marital infidelity was viewed by the public in the period after the Restoration. Using a variety of sources, including diaries, sermons, marital guides, plays, and legal treatises, the author contends that adultery came to be viewed as a personal failing rather than a punishable sin. "Turner's basic point is that as gentility came to replace religiosity, early Hanoverian England generated very different values from those of the Stuart era," noted History: Review of New Books contributor Stanley H. Palmer, who continued: "One social practice, adultery, was increasingly seen not as an offense against God but as an assault on one's social relations with others." H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online reviewer Tim Hitchcock similarly noted that the author "maps adultery onto the landscape of politeness and civility. He adds an analysis of illicit sex to the large body of literature about the eighteenth century that has argued for the creation of a newly private sphere and, by extension, newly public politics." According to Canadian Journal of History critic Raymond Stephanson, "Fashioning Adultery is solid work—careful (even modest) in its claims, and impressive in its attention to historical detail." The critic added that "anyone who seeks to study Enlightenment marriage, divorce, illicit sex, or the class/economics grid of fornication—whether social or literary historian—will benefit from this useful study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, winter, 2004, Brian Cowan, review of Fashioning Adultery: Gender, Sex, and Civility in England, 1660-1740, p. 653.

American Historical Review, December, 2003, Elizabeth Foyster, review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 1522.

Canadian Journal of History, April, 2004, Raymond Stephanson, review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 132.

History: Review of New Books, winter, 2003, Stanley H. Palmer, review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 68.

Journal of British Studies, January, 2005, Melissa Mowry, "Sex and the Archives," review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 178.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, spring, 2004, Lisa Forman Cody, review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 634.

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 2004, Robert C. Braddock, review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 397.

Sixteenth Century Journal, fall, 2004, Janice Gordon-Kelter, review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 855.

William and Mary Quarterly, April, 2004, Nicole Eustace, review of Fashioning Adultery, p. 368.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (September, 2004), Tim Hitchcock, review of Fashioning Adultery.

Swansea University Web site,http://www.swan.ac.uk/ (May 10, 2008), biography of David M. Turner.