This Revolution Was British, Fired by Libidos

Faramerz Dabhoiwala has endured some awkward moments since his new book, “The Origins of Sex,” an ambitious history of sexuality in 18th-century Britain, was published to rave reviews in that country in January.

One woman approached him after a lecture to ask gravely his opinion about the future of the female orgasm. A reporter from The Times of London emerged from an interview in his rooms at Exeter College, Oxford, where he is the senior fellow in modern history, to pronounce him “the younger, cuter Simon Schama.” And then there was the mini-scandal that ensued after he recited a salty 18th-century verse on a late-night BBC radio program.

But on a stroll through the Museum of Sex during a recent visit to New York, Mr. Dabhoiwala, 42, seemed at ease among the vintage vibrators and up-to-the-minute fetish images, if a bit wary of being photographed anywhere near them....