|
Sex in Crisis: The New Sexual Revolution and the Future of American Politics
|
| List Price: | $26.95 |
| Price: | $20.48 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
67 new or used available from $0.01
Average customer review:
Product Description
America is in the midst of a second sexual revolution--and this time, argues historian Dagmar Herzog, the love isn't free.
There is a war on sex in America--and conservative evangelicals are winning. Only three decades after the legalization of abortion, the broad gains of the feminist movement, and the emergence of the gay rights movement, America has gone frigid.
Republicans--and even many Democrats--insist that abstinence is the only acceptable form of birth control, and fully 50 percent of American high schools teach a "sex education" curriculum that includes deceptive information about the prevalence of STDs and the failure rate of condoms. Students are taught that homosexuality is curable, and that pornography is addictive.
Americans are not anti-sex, but they're increasingly anxious about sex--largely due to the tactics of the Religious Right. Afraid of sounding unelectable, American liberals have failed to challenge its retrograde orthodoxy. We are all evangelicals now.
How has the Religious Right achieved this ascendancy? Surprisingly, argues Dagmar Herzog in Sex in Crisis, Evangelicals have appropriated the lessons of the first sexual revolution far more effectively than liberals. With the support of a billion-dollar Christian sex industry, evangelicals have crafted an astonishingly graphic and effective pitch for the pleasures of "hot monogamy"--for married, heterosexual couples only, of course. This potent message has enabled them to win elections and seduce souls, with disastrous political consequences.
Fierce, witty, and brilliant, Sex in Crisis will force America to confront its national sexual dysfunction--and rally all but the most pious hot monogamists to demand a more sophisticated national conversation about the facts of life.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #193711 in Books
- Published on: 2008-06-30
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780465002146
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
Review
“It’s wishful thinking to imagine that the Religious Right is in retreat on all fronts in America and Dagmar Herzog fearlessly reveals how at the nexus of sex and politics, evangelical conservatives still control the agenda. How did this happen and why are progressive leaders silent on sex in America? With eye-popping research and reporting, Dagmar Herzog offers answers and, more important, issues a transformative challenge to all Americans. Sex in Crisis is a remarkable, necessary book.”
“Sex in Crisis is a brilliant analysis of the ways in which our bedrooms have been invaded by the anxiety-mongers of Big Pharma and the moralists of the Christian Right. Dagmar Herzog's account of America's New Sexual Revolution is crisply written, often disturbing, and utterly persuasive.”
“To appreciate the heady brew of contradictions bubbling in the evangelical right's secular campaign about sex — including its successful use of therapeutic language, double messages on chastity and salvation, and pro-sex view of marriage — Herzog's sharp-eyed critical study, packed with jaw-dropping evidence, is a must read.”
"The religious right has repackaged its anti-sex messages in a secular wrapping to suit the changing cultural and social world over the last decades, but inside the box is the same old message, sexual abstinence and sexual ignorance for all, except in marriage. What is new is that if the sex you are having is not heterosexual, marital and serving God's purposes it is the source of mental and physical illness in addition to being sinful. Dagmar Herzog has carefully documented the ways in which the religious right has through distortion and falsehood taken over the language of sexual health and played upon the sexual fears of the American public and its politicians to invalidate all other forms of sexuality. This is an important book about the way in which the sexual conversation in the United States has been shanghaied to advance the religious and secular agendas of the far right."
About the Author
Dagmar Herzog is Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author of two pioneering books, Intimacy and Exclusion and Sex after Fascism, as well as numerous scholarly articles on the history of human sexuality.
Customer Reviews
Please Be Objective
Jeri Nevermind - actually I believe it is since abstinence only and other dishonest forms of sex education were instituted that the rate of unplanned pregnancies has risen so sharply. And part of actual sex education, as opposed to fearmongering and empty moralizing, would be to teach fathers responsibility, and women assertiveness (as opposed to obedience and "just saying no"). The very largest proportion of abortions, illegitimate children, etc. among my students are had by women from religious families, trained to obey men ("have sex with me!" "now abort the child, it is not convenient to me!" "but have this one, because God has told me you should!").
Excellent Book: -Interesting Read
This is an excellent book, -very interesting and illuminating.
It's not simply `against' the right or overly partisan. The book takes a critical look at left and right political policy. -Very critical of the Clinton administration.
It considers the new approach to sexuality on the right, which I think people on the right might find very valuable and insightful (if you can read outside a political orientation).
Some elements of the book are speculative (it's on sexuality) or you might not agree with the conclusions of the author, but it's a well documented and well researched book. It also deals with many emerging factors (i.e. the growth of internet porn, sexual pharmacology...). I opens many issues worth consideration in a new and illuminating light.
Excellent book.
This is an enlightening look at the effects on our lives of the moral tightening around topics of sexuality that comes from the powerful religious right.
