The Naughty Nineties: The Decade that Unleashed Sex, Lies, and the World Wide Web

by David Friend

Featuring a new foreword by Molly Jong-Fast, THE NAUGHTY NINETIES is a sexual history of the 1990s when the tabloids, the tawdry, and the titillating took over Washington, Hollywood, and Madison Avenue.

THE NAUGHTY NINETIES examines the scandal-ridden decade when our public and private lives began to blur due to the rise of the web, reality television, and the wholesale tabloidization of pop culture. David Friend offers an unfiltered look into the captains of the culture wars and an indispensable roadmap for understanding the path that led us to the Trump era.

With keen wit and meticulous reporting, David Friend shares firsthand accounts from the unforgettable personalities who shaped the decade, from Anita Hill to Monica Lewinsky, Demi Moore to Madonna—not to mention Lorena Bobbitt and Heidi Fleiss. He also uncovers new revelations about the accidental discovery of Viagra, how porn brought America online, and the escapades of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and everything not sacred and definitely profane about this libidinous decade.

Genres: Nonfiction

608 pages, Paperback

Published June 11, 2024

About the author

David Friend is an editor, author, and award-winning documentary producer with a career spanning journalism, photography, and film. Since 1998, he has been the editor of creative development at Vanity Fair, following his tenure as Life magazine’s director of photography. His work has shaped major journalistic projects, including the 2005 Vanity Fair story that revealed FBI insider Mark Felt as “Deep Throat,” the confidential Watergate source. He also played a key role in expanding Vanity Fair into books, e-books, television, and digital media, launching VanityFair.com.
As an author, Friend has explored cultural and historical themes in books such as Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11 (2006), The Naughty Nineties (2017), and two volumes on human existence, The Meaning of Life and More Reflections on the Meaning of Life. In the realm of documentary film, he is an Emmy- and Peabody-winning producer, with projects including Lakota Nation vs. United States (2023), MLK/FBI (2021), and the widely broadcast CBS prime-time special 9/11.
Beyond journalism and film, Friend has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and the Middle East, coedited 13 Vanity Fair books, and curated photography exhibitions on three continents. His poetry has been published in The New Yorker, further highlighting the breadth of his creative work.

Reviews

[M Shomaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An non-precious examination of the 1990s and its fascination and saturation with sex. Framed around the indiscretions of the Clinton White House and Bill Clinton as America's "bro," this book explores the rise of pornography on the internet, tragic masculinity, the Vagina Monologues, Brazilian waxes, and a slew of other pop culture memories that shaped our modern age.

[Lindsey Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, definitely learned a lot. Can feel sometimes repetitive, especially that it's 556 pages and I don't feel like that is necessary. But overall great book.