Sex in the Heartland

Rating:
Summary: Sex in the Heartland
Review: For those looking for a very informational book about the sexual revolution from the 1940's to the 1970's, this would be a book for you to read. This book was about how the youth at this time was blogged by war, lonely because they were away from their families at college, and stressed from school work. So naturally much of the youth turned towards sex.
Beth Bailey provides the audience with a lot of factual information regarding the change in youth. Bailey did an excellent job proving that the sexual revolution of the youth wasn't just in the west or east coast. It occured in the midwest as well as small towns such as Lawrence, Kansas. As a resident of Kansas right now and a youth I found this book very interesting because my parents went through the sexual revoltuon and I had no idea. They went through the same struggles kids today go through with sex in our country. I found this book an easy read and recommend it to not just people who lived through the sexual revoltion but everyone.

Rating:
Summary: very smart and accessible book about an important topic
Review: Having attended KU during the sexual revolution I really looked forward to reading this book. It is interesting to read about events you actually got to attend and to read about persons you knew at college. The writer has done a masterful job of research and certainly the book was entertaining, yet it does not capture what was going on. Young people want to have sex, and they will have sex as long as it is reasonably possible. The reason there seemed to be a sexual revolution in Lawrence at the end of the 1960s was because there were now so many more college students there. This fact, more than anything else, was the moving force behind the "revolution." As I remember college, it was a time of poverty, too much work, being away from home the first time, and loneliness and isolation. Perhaps in the fantasy world of the mass media all college students were having sex, but in the real world most of us were just trying to survive. There is sexual behavior going on everywhere, and there will be sexual behavior as long as we are human beings. But in Kansas many boys lose their virginity in whore houses in Junction City Kansas. Others utilize barnyard animals. (Sheep are best.) The fact that this dirty business is kept quiet does not mean that it does not occur. The presense of many homosexuals at KU could indicate the occurrance of a sexual revolution. It could also just as well indicate that the state itself is so repressive they flock to Lawrence for a chance to be free. I don't think the author understood this and I do not think that the book is all that intellectually significant. The kids who came up to Lawrence in 1968 and began having sex there would have been having sex had they come up in 1938. Similarly those who couldn't get laid in the 1960s would have done without at any time. Additionally the gay fringe and the counterculture were simply not representative of the student body and to compare or even discuss the two groups is to compare oranges with frogs.

Rating:
Summary: Sex in the Heartland, or Horny in Lawrence
Review: Having attended KU during the sexual revolution I really looked forward to reading this book. It is interesting to read about events you actually got to attend and to read about persons you knew at college. The writer has done a masterful job of research and certainly the book was entertaining, yet it does not capture what was going on. Young people want to have sex, and they will have sex as long as it is reasonably possible. The reason there seemed to be a sexual revolution in Lawrence at the end of the 1960s was because there were now so many more college students there. This fact, more than anything else, was the moving force behind the "revolution." As I remember college, it was a time of poverty, too much work, being away from home the first time, and loneliness and isolation. Perhaps in the fantasy world of the mass media all college students were having sex, but in the real world most of us were just trying to survive. There is sexual behavior going on everywhere, and there will be sexual behavior as long as we are human beings. But in Kansas many boys lose their virginity in whore houses in Junction City Kansas. Others utilize barnyard animals. (Sheep are best.) The fact that this dirty business is kept quiet does not mean that it does not occur. The presense of many homosexuals at KU could indicate the occurrance of a sexual revolution. It could also just as well indicate that the state itself is so repressive they flock to Lawrence for a chance to be free. I don't think the author understood this and I do not think that the book is all that intellectually significant. The kids who came up to Lawrence in 1968 and began having sex there would have been having sex had they come up in 1938. Similarly those who couldn't get laid in the 1960s would have done without at any time. Additionally the gay fringe and the counterculture were simply not representative of the student body and to compare or even discuss the two groups is to compare oranges with frogs.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent history of sex in flyover country
Review: The sexual revolution didn't just happen in New York and San Francisco, and this book tell the story of how the sexual revolution came to the liberal college town of Lawrence, KS.

This book has a lot of fascinating stories, such as the history of birth control in Lawrence, the story of the town's attempt to "protect" itself from 10,000 sex-crazed young men working the nearby arms factory during WWII, and the history of gay liberation in the area.

Anyone interested in sexual/cultural politics and social issue will really enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: very smart and accessible book about an important topic
Review: This is a very accessible, well-written book which at the same time provides a complex analysis of American's changing attitudes and assumptions regarding sexual practices. While focusing on Lawrence, Kansas, (very useful for understanding how individuals and institutions reacted within a specific context), it says much about the country as a whole. It is refreshingly forthright without being unnecessarily salacious. And it manages to inform without taking all the fun out of the topic-quite a balancing act!

Rating:
Summary: Thoughts from the Heartland
Review: This is an excellent book recommended to me by my history proffesor here at the University of Kansas. My main reason for writing this reveiw is to denounce the view of susan jordan "susan in hollywood." I cannot believe she says those things about boys from kansas. I myself am from western kansas and for someone to say that is very distrubing and really makes you wonder how she imagined such a thing being commonplace. some people should just stay in hollywood