Angus McLaren

Angus McLaren (December 20, 1942 – June 7, 2024) was professor emeritus of history at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and a leading figure in the history of sexuality.

Early life and education McLaren was born to Lillian (née Brown) and Thomas Smiles McLaren in East Vancouver. He completed a honours degree in French history from the University of British Columbia in 1965. After graduation and marrying Arlene Tigar, he pursued, thanks to a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a PhD in history at Harvard University.

Awards and honours McLaren won numerous scholarly awards for his work – including the1993 Hannah Medal (history of medicine) by the Royal Society of Canada for his book Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945, and the 2008 Bonnie and Vern L Bullough Book Award (history of sexuality) by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality for his book Impotence: A Cultural History. McLaren was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1999,

In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious Molson prize that recognizes outstanding lifetime achievements to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada. As the Molson jury explained: 'Angus McLaren is an imaginative and prolific historian who has increased significantly our understanding of sexuality, gender and reproduction, and other related topics'. McLaren was the first historian in western Canada to receive the award.

Selected publications McLaren, Angus (1978). Birth Control in Nineteenth-Century England. London, United Kingdom: Croom Helm. ISBN 9780856645044 McLaren, Angus (1983). Sexuality and Social Order: The Debate over the Fertility of Women and Workers in France, 1770-1920. London, United Kingdom: Holmes and Meier Publishers. ISBN 9780841907447 McLaren, Angus (1984). Reproductive Rituals: The Perception of Fertility in England from the Sixteenth Century to the Nineteenth Century. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. ISBN 9780367434519 McLaren, Angus and McLaren, Arlene Tigar (1986). The Bedroom and the State: The Changing Practices and Politics of Contraception and Abortion in Canada, 1880-1980. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 9780195413182 McLaren, Angus (1990). Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442659643 McLaren, Angus (1992). A History of Contraception: From Antiquity to the Present Day, Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780631187295 McLaren, Angus (1993). A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226560687 McLaren, Angus (1997). The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870-1930. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226500690 McLaren, Angus (1999). Twentieth-Century Sexuality: A History. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780631208129 McLaren, Angus (2002). Sexual Blackmail: A Modern History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674009240 McLaren, Angus (2007). Impotence: A Cultural History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226500935 McLaren, Angus (2012). Reproduction by Design: Sex, Robots, Trees, and Test-Tube Babies in Interwar Britain. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226560694 McLaren, Angus (2017). Playboys and Mayfair Men: Crime, Class, Masculinity, and Fascism in 1930s London. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9781421423470