Sex in America: A Definitive Survey [Hardcover]

Robert T. Michael (Author), John H. Gagnon (Author), Edward O. Laumann (Author), Gina Kolata (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994

Based on interviews with 3,432 adults, a group of social scientists offers a detailed, accurate report on Americans' sexual habits, including how frequently they have sexual intercourse, what they do in bed, and how many people are homosexual. 75,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Embargoed until the day--October 10--the press announced its overall findings, this is the popular report of the most authoritative study ever of sexual behavior in the U.S. (A companion report, The Social Organization of Sexuality [Univ. of Chicago, $49.95, 0-226-46957-3], is addressed to social scientists, counselors, and health professionals.) Its most startling conclusion is that most Americans don't "do it" as much as the media and such previous surveys as Kinsey's have made us think. First explaining why this study accurately represents the entire U.S. population in its target age-range (18-59) and why the information gleaned from its respondents is credible, the smoothly edited text presents findings in 11 fields of inquiry: who our sex partners are, how we find them, how many of them we have, how often we have sex, how prevalent particular sexual practices and preferences are among us, how much we masturbate and use erotica and what we think of these things, how many of us have experienced homosexual feelings and behavior and how frequently, how many and what kinds of persons among us have ever contracted sexually transmitted diseases, how many and what kinds of persons among us have contracted the AIDS virus, how many have experienced forced sex, and how social attitudes correlate with the prevalences of certain kinds of sexual behavior. To say this is all fascinating is understatement, but to say it's at all scandalous is ridiculous. Instead, many will find it reassuringly commonsensical. They'll discover that their own sex lives are pretty normal and that if somebody else is making out like bandits, they're not enjoying it as much as Mr. and Mrs. John Doe. What a relief! Ray Olson

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316075248
• ISBN-13: 978-0316075244
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #661,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Praise for sex in america, August 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sex in America (Paperback)

This book is the culmination of an enormous undertaking. 9,000 addresses were selected from random geographical locations. The participants, aged 18 to 55 years, completed an hour and a half interview about their sexual practices. Anyone interested in human sexuality will want to learn about the results from this study. Although this book does not go into the depth or detail of "The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the Unites States," this book is more user-friendly. This book is a must for therapists who deal not only with sexulaity issuess but also relationship issues. Previous research has demonstrated that all couples have arguments about work, money and sex. Thus, it is essential to learn what the actual sexual practices of couples are and this book is a tool with a wealth of information.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fact Proves More Interesting than Fiction, January 2, 2007

By 

M. Burns (Washington, DC.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sex in America (Paperback)

Driven by the publicity of American sexual habits after movies like Kinsey, I took it upon myself to begin reading into just how much of the hype was realistic. Could Americans truly be as hypersexed as Kinsey's studies seemed to show? Was it true that one out of every ten Americans was homosexual? Sex in America answers these questions as part of the first scientifically-sound mass-studies of American sexuality ever undertaken by social science. Breaking through the harsh stigma of sex and sexuality, Sex in America points in an unexpected direction: Americans aren't as Bohemian as we might think.

This finding: That Americans are not as erotic as the media and popular myth believes us to be, may be the most significant thing about Sex in America. We have been trained to think many things about ourselves and others: That AIDS can affect anyone, that sex drops off with marriage, that young people have the most partners and the shortest relationships. Through thorough, statistically-sound research, the social scientists behind Sex in America show that just about every preconception we have about human sexuality has turned out to be wrong.

Now we know.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars real data, February 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Sex in America (Paperback)

This book is incredible not just for the data it presents, but for the first chapter, which presents an exceptional picture of the damage that bad survey data can have on an entire nation. The incredibly ill-designed surveys of the past have warped American's views of themselves and our country, and the book details why. If there was ever a treatise on why we should all learn statistics, this is it.