We are in the midst of a constitutional revolution. It is a revolution that has tested the most fundamental values of the American people and has shaken constitutional law to its roots. It has bitterly divided citizens, politicians and judges. It is a battle that has dominated politics, inflamed religious passions, and challenged Americans to rethink and re-examine their positions on issues they once thought settled. It is a story that has never before been told in its full sweep. And, best of all, it is about sex.

That is how Geoffrey R. Stone begins Sex and the Constitution, his richly detailed and highly readable exploration of sexual behavior, attitudes about sex and the consequences of those attitudes from Greek and Roman times to the present day. And a sweeping exploration it is. Stone, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, is the author of several critically acclaimed books that focus on the durability of free speech principles when tested by real or imagined crises. Sex and the Constitution, 10 years in the making, is perhaps his most ambitious undertaking, but, over the course of 500 pages of smoothly flowing prose, its ambition is fully realized.

Read more at Massachusetts Law Review