內容簡介
內容簡介 A �volume of lasting significance� thatilluminates how the clash between sex andreligion has defined our nation�s history (LeeC. Bollinger, president, Columbia University). Lauded for �bringing a bracing and much-needed dose of reality about the Founders� views of sexuality� (New York Review of Books), Geoffrey R. Stone�s Sex and the Constitution traces the evolution of legal and moral codes that have legislated sexual behavior from America�s earliest days to today�s fractious political climate. This �fascinating and maddening� (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) narrative shows how agitators, moralists, and, especially, the justices of the Supreme Court have navigated issues as divisive as abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and contraception. Overturning a raft of contemporary shibboleths, Stone reveals that at the time the Constitution was adopted there were no laws against obscenity or abortion before the midpoint of pregnancy. A pageant of historical characters, including Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Anthony Comstock, Margaret Sanger, and Justice Anthony Kennedy, enliven this �commanding synthesis of scholarship� (Publishers Weekly) that dramatically reveals how our laws about sex, religion, and morality reflect the cultural schisms that have cleaved our nation from its founding.
