The Sexual Revolution - and the breakdown of the Family - has brought misery to millions. In The Sexual State Jennifer Roback Morse shows that the Sexual Revolution did not just “happen” like a force of nature. Rather, it was deliberately created by “elites,” harnessing the power of the State, allowing them to inflict three false and calamitous ideologies – contraception, divorce, and gender – that have led to widespread and profound unhappiness, and worse.
The ideas of the Sexual Revolution did not emerge from the lived experiences of ordinary people, the government has been imposing the morality of an out-of-touch elite class on the rest of us for decades.
The Sexual State turns the conventional wisdom on its head to reveal Social conservative ideas and traditional Catholic morality are getting clobbered. And the dirty secret that no one wants to acknowledge – until now! - is that the progressive social elites have rigged the system. Most people don’t love abortion, or divorce, or single-parent families! Thankfully, Dr. Morse, and the Catholic Church, have the answer. It is vital that those who would change the culture understand how we got there, otherwise, the countering tactics will remain important.
In this masterful take-down of the Sexual Revolution and its promoters, Morse calls for a widespread adherence to the principles of the Church. Only then will our society recover from the misrule of “the elites” and the “managerial class.”
Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is the founder and President of the Ruth Institute — a project of the National Organization for Marriage — which seeks to promote life-long married love to college students by creating an intellectual and social climate favorable to marriage.
She is also the Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.
She is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, (2005) and Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn’t Work (2001), recently reissued in paperback, as Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
Dr. Morse served as a Research Fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution from 1997-2005. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in 1980 and spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Chicago during 1979-80. She taught economics at Yale University and George Mason University for 15 years. She was John M. Olin visiting scholar at the Cornell Law School in fall 1993. She is a regular contributor to the National Review Online, National Catholic Register, Town Hall, MercatorNet and To the Source.
fan pageDr. Morse’s scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, Economic Inquiry, the Journal of Economic History, Publius: the Journal of Federalism, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Social Philosophy and Policy, The Independent Review, and The Notre Dame Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy.
In April 2008, Dr. Morse presented at the Harvard conference, “The Legacy and Future of Feminism.” In July 2006, Dr. Morse was one of the few Americans who lectured at the Fifth Annual Meeting of Families in Valencia Spain, sponsored by the Pontifical Council on the Family. Dr. Morse lectured in Rome in April 1997 and in January 2006 at Acton Institute conferences celebrating the Papal encyclical, Centesimus Annus. Her public policy articles have appeared in Forbes, Policy Review,The American Enterprise, Fortune, Reason, the Wall Street Journal, Vital Speeches, and Religion and Liberty.
She currently lives in San Diego, CA. She and her husband are the parents of a birth child, an adopted child. From March 2003 to August 2006, Dr. Morse and her husband were foster parents for San Diego County. During that time, they cared for a total of eight foster children.
Good introduction into the evils of the sexual revolution. Frankly I hadn’t even thought about some of the topics. For instance I have never really thought about divorce, it having never invaded my life. Nor did I really know the history of its evolution into a free for all no-fault divorce.
As an introductory work, it left me wanting for more as I never really understand anything until I read 125,000 pages about it. And some of the chapters on alternatives to the sexual revolution, or the sexual state, were, I think, rather short.
I also don’t think arguments are helped by sarcastic remarks which pepper this work. If you have a good argument, which she does (and is largely provided by reality) let the cold logic of it slay the opponent.
EXCELLENT resource. Dr. Morse offers an astounding amount of references to support her reasoning. She explains very clearly how "elites" promoted contraception, divorce and gender ideologies to the world and how these theories have impacted our society. There are truly tragic stories filled with sorrow and some stories that make you wonder how people fell for such nonsense. It's also extremely clear that selfishness and greed have impacted children - they are paying a huge price. I highly recommend Dr. Morse's book and her work at the Ruth Institute. We must stop the evil of these ideologies for our own souls and the souls of our children.
“The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies Are Destroying Lives and Why the Church Was Right All Along” by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse is an insightful, extensively documented work of research rather than a religious treatise. Those of you who are not religious will find the book fact-filled and logically organized, especially if you enjoy reading about American social history. This is a must read for anyone who is concerned about our civilization's social and moral future.
Awesome. Not only does the conservative viewpoint make more sense, it's a real lesson in sociology and politics. Liberal need to read this book, even if they disagree.
If you like to highlight poignant text, you might as well highlight every word in this book. I can see my liberal friends burning in disagreement but struggling with counter-arguments.
Tackles the questions that arise from all the debauchery we have in society. Would like her to write an updated version cause it seems things are consistently getting worse
I first heard Dr. Morse speak about Children of divorce in a Youtube video and I became absolutely captivated by the rawness of her words. She wouldn’t mince any of them to appease anybody. Finally, someone who wasn’t afraid to say the quiet parts, that Divorce is harmful to everyone, even in the cases where separation is warranted and the only and most sensible thing to choose. So, I had to hear more of what her ideas were. This book and/or her author might not appeal to your personal sensibilities, you might disagree with Dr. Morse on absolutely everything, but nor you nor I can deny that she’s actively trying to help solve some of the issues she complains about in her book. She’s trying to walk the walk. I think the minimum any well-intention person has the responsibility to do is to listen with an open-mind and make up your own mind. In that order.
The title of the book tells it all: Dr. Morse provides research, not philosophical ideals on how the Sexual Revolution is ruining our Society. Also She provides information on Who are the Elites and how they got their power as they continue to press their agendas.
A wonderful resource that is extremely readable. Through separating the Sexual Revolution into 3 interdependent ideologies, Dr. J has brought much clarity to a broad topic
A lot of this information I already had some knowledge about but the facts she tells in each chapter is really eye opening. I recommend if you like learning!!
4.5 stars. This was a well written and well cited book that illustrated key ideologies that have wreaked havoc on our families, communities and society as a whole. The 3 key ideologies discussed are contraceptive, divorce and gender ideologies. Morse does a good job of explaining issues seen in society, providing historical and legal perspective on the ideologies, their roots and how they have grown and impacted so much of society. It is a book that's worth the read to better understand these issues and the history behind them.
Good job recognizing a real problem, but I’m uncomfortable with the broadness of the diagnosis. Is it really “elites” that are at fault? And is there no more specific we can get?