Condom Nation

The U.S. Government's Sex Education Campaign from World War I to the Internet

Bibliographic Data

ID7869237
AuthorsL A Wheeler (Binghamton University, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume97
Issue4
Pages1191-1191
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jahist/jaq037
OpenAlexW2040323227
LanguageEN
Citations received3

Condom Nation is a cleverly if erroneously titled history of sex education programs sponsored by the U.S. government from the early twentieth century to the present day. Alexandra M. Lord shows how wars and military concerns inspired government agencies to develop sex education pamphlets and programs aimed at preventing venereal disease, as well as how postwar antibiotics and sulfa drugs and the rise in unwed pregnancy shifted government aims accordingly. She also shows how the sexual revolution prompted changes in the imagery if not the message of public health materials even as it brought greater government reliance on student assertiveness. Turning to the demise of student activism, the rise of the New Right, and the emergence of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), Lord argues that all of these factors led to a renewed focus on disease and abstinence. In addition, Lord comments on how both President Bill Clinton's sexual troubles and Gov. Sarah Palin's run for vice president as a conservative evangelical mother of an unmarried pregnant teenager shaped federal policy and public discourse regarding sex education

Condom · Demise · Family medicine · Family planning · Government (linguistics · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Population · Sexual abstinence · Sociology · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Medicine

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