The invention of the birth control pill, the end of censorship, the advent of feminism, the rise of commercial pornorgaphy, dozens of changes to daily lives in the 1960s and '70s stimulated an unprecedented time of sexual openness in American society, a season of optimism and experimentation remembered as the sexual revolution. This work is a treatment of the complicated events, ideas, and personalities that drove the sexual revolution forward. Based on firsthand accounts, diaries, interviews, and period research, it traces changes in private lives and public discourse from the fearful '50s to the first tremors of rebellion in the early '60s to the heady heyday of the revolution. This history tells the stories of the major figures of the period, sexual freedom fighters, feminists, scientists, pornographers, gay activists, First Amendment lawyers, and others who made the headlines. But it is based equally on the testimony of ordinary people: men and women who dared to take risks in their private lives and share their experiences with others. They yearned for a freer, more open society. Their stories of spouse swapping, swinging, group sex, and other erotic adventures reveal an era in which "the pursuit of happiness" took on new meaning in American life.
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