This is Michael Maxwell with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America by Rebecca L. Davis, a revelatory survey of our country’s history that answers many questions readers may have long had about why Americans are the way we are.
There’s that old saying about how everything is about sex, except sex, which is about power. This adage came to mind a lot as I read Fierce Desires. And while, yes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, it’s so interesting rereading bits of American history with all the proper backstory filled in- the good, the bad, and the surprising. I had so many moments where I had to put this book down and look into an imaginary camera as if I were on an NBC sitcom. The “duh” moments come one after the other in this book that’s stuffed with epiphanies, and reading this feels like undoing years of gaslighting. That adage about sex and power exists for a reason!
While the subject matter of a book like Fierce Desires can certainly make some readers blush, I would not call this a prurient or voyeuristic book by any means. This isn’t a pornographic exploitation of the historical record, rather it’s a level-headed assessment of the roots of a country’s cultural neuroses. This book is full of the stories that don’t usually make it into your grade school social studies textbook. These stories aren’t aiming to titillate you; they exist instead to fill in some of what might have been left out the first time you heard them.
Check out Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America by Rebecca L. Davis at the Sioux City Public Library today!
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