Across My Desk: The Effects of the Pill

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 04, 2012 | In Reviews

I received a review copy of Mary Eberstadt’s Adam and Eve after the Pill, which is undoubtedly an excellent book. I’m not looking closely at it only because I’ve been sufficiently immersed in the subject that I will not gain much from going through it again, and I already know the high quality of Eberstadt’s work from other sources.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t be an important book for many of our readers, who may be looking for a cohesive presentation of the bitter fruit produced in all areas of society by our pervasive sexual licentiousness. Because this new license delivers pretty much the opposite of what it promises, the subtitle of the book is “Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution”.

The paradoxes are that the sexual revolution has been bad for women, bad for men, bad for children, and bad for young adults. Moreover, we are now prudish about what we eat while permitting our bodies anything in the way of sex, and we are now vehemently opposed to tobacco while lionizing the addiction to pornography. There are chapters on all of these paradoxes.

The book closes with a reflection on “the vindication of Humanae Vitae”. If you want to read more on this important topic, Mary Eberstadt will prove a reliable and even sprightly guide.