Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution: An Unfettered History

by David Allyn

Book Overview

Make Love, Not War is the first full-scale history of how the Sexual Revolution changed life in America forever. A fascinating and frank portrait of private lives and public discourse, it traces... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316039306
• ISBN13: 9780316039307
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Length: 381 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

A Fascinating History

Was the sexual revolution a confluence of forces producing a shift in society (like the industrial) or an organized, ideological effort to overthrow the existing order (like the French)? A little of both, and this book takes a look at both the radicals and those swept along by social, cultural, and technological change. A broad, fast-paced, and fascinating overview of an often neglected part of United States history. Provides plenty of food for thought for students of history or the would-be revolutionaries of more recent generations.

How did I miss the sexual revolution?

Graduating from high school in 1967 put me in the midst of the sexual revolution, but being a product of fifties parents and working my way through college, I never got caught up in it despite attending San Jose State, a campus housing a Black Panther Society. How did I miss the fact that The Weathermen and the SDS had at their cord (along with "over-throwing the U.S. government and anniliating the sexual tradition of monogamy) the ideology of Make Love Not War? Allyn has written a book so jam packed with information on the "sexual revolution," a chronological as well as psychological time line of events that has gotten us, believe it or not, closer to the dreamed of equality for men and women of all sexual orientations. It is a must read. I plan to read it again. Now if we, the children of this era, could just work on the "Not War" part.

Really gripping account

Because the 60's sexual revolution has been analyzed to death, this book may not initally seem like it covers new ground. but it presents the classic topic in a refreshing and balanced perspective. Irrespective of the reader's own personal judgement, Allyn contends the sexual revolution was not solely one large orgy. but the creative work of many different movers and shakers that allowed us to enter into a dialog on the meaning and worth of sex outside childbearing. His history of the sexual revolution differs from earlier works such as Playboy's own (largely self-indulgent volume) because it readily gives credit where it is due to women and non-heterosexuals. While the sexual revolution was supposed to be for the benefit of everybody in young America, the continued difficulty of securing contraception, the illegality of abortion, and loco parentis policies in Colleges made the concept an intially hollow promise for many women. Others, working in the new left quickly discovered they were expected to be little more than a Housewife/Sex object with an armband and picket sign to their male counterparts. Sexism was so pervasive the doublestandard was just repackaged in psychedelic garb. The author points out it was feminists and gay liberationists who challenged narrow defintions of sexuality and brought the sexual revolution closest to accheiving it's utopian vision. Because most other conventional histories of the 60's ignore or marginalize the contributions of these groups, this book should be required reading as part of a college course on the 1960's. Far from being monolithic, the sexual revolution had many unsung leaders, and we could not have the discussions on safe sex today were it not for these pioneers.

An Excellent and Insightful Book

Allyn's book made me look at the sixties in a whole new light. He's young, he was born in '69, but I think that gives him the ability to write about the sexual revolution and all that happened in the sixties with an objective persepctive. He argues that the sexual revolution taught people to speak how to speak about sex but not how to listen. He also shows how we're still as ambivalent about sex as we ever were. I think those are important points. And the book is a great read! He doesn't just focus on famous people like Hugh Hefner (though he did interiew him). Allyn writes about "average" people who were challenging middle-class sexual morality in their own ways. He has an interview with one guy who formed a Catholic group sex commune. You don't hear those stories in the typical sixties retrospectives.

Wow! Read this book.

Make Love, Not War is the first book I've read on sex in America that is both intelligent and titiliating. The chapters on group sex and swinging are too good to put down. Allyn did amazing interviews--he basically interviewed everyone who was involved in the sexual revolution. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in sex or American culture.