Hanne Blank's revolutionary, rich, and entertaining survey of an astonishing untouched history reveals why humans have been fixated on an indefinable state of being since the dawn of time. As the butt of innumerable jokes, center of spiritual mysteries, locus of teenage angst, popular genre for pornography, and nucleus around which the world's most powerful government has created an unprecedented abstinence policy, Virgin also shows how utterly important to contemporary times the topic is. A well-researched history of virginity...In an era marked by a 'chaotic maelstrom of virginities,' Blank's book is a useful...antidote to our confusion.—New York Times Book Review