Historian Faramerz Dabhoiwala: “The ethos of western culture until the 18th century was dominated by the idea that sex is essentially a sinful act, that it is potentially a very dangerous thing to allow, and that it only has a place within marriage. … There were all these things that happened in and around the 18th century – the age of the Enlightenment – that are both extraordinary in themselves and collectively add up to a sexual revolution.”