The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York is a book written by Patricia Cline Cohen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, and Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, in association with the American Antiquarian Society, about the sexual underground of 1840s New York City.

[3] These newspapers were considered to be "obscene, libidinous, loathsome, and lascivious.

The Flash Press takes a look at why these newspapers were considered to be so obscene.

It also explores the individuals that these papers targeted: where they lived, where they worked and what was the appeal to them of the newspapers.

The introduction offers an overview of how the American Antiquarian Society came into possession of the newspapers, and how Cohen, Gilfoyle, and Horowitz came to research the newspapers and author The Flash Press.