Talk about Sex: The Battles Over Sex Education in the United States

"This judicious and perceptive book will be read not only by academics but by serious readers interested in sexuality, culture, and public policy. Irvine explores the clash between professional sex education advocates and politicized Christian evangelicals that has played out on the stage of local communities and school systems since the 1960s. She illuminates a significant yet largely unknown story of the politics of sexuality."--Kathy Peiss, author of Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture

"Irvine's work is a serious and passionate study; it is respectful of its subject while at the same time retaining its critical edge and its political principles."--Margaret Hunt, author of The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender and the Family in England 1680-1780

"Irvine has written an unusually rich social history that makes a significant contribution to several fields of scholarly inquiry. Her book provides by far the best account we have of SIECUS (Mary Calderone's pioneering organization). It also provides an innovative analysis of the rise of the Christian Right in the '70s and a highly imaginative narrative of the 'sexualization' of Christian evangelicalism and its successful manipulation of collective emotions for political ends."--Martin Duberman, editor of Beyond Gay or Straight: Understanding Sexual Orientation

"One comes away from reading this book with renewed appreciation for the creative potential of words and symbols in framing how we think about something so ordinary, if I may say so, as sex!"--Wade Clark Roof, author of Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion

"While there are books that are central in this area, none covers the sex education debates or accomplishes the theoretical moves undertaken here."--Cindy Patton, author of Globalizing AIDS