One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the

One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the Course of American History
by Larry Flynt (Author), David Eisenbach Ph.D (Author)

Book Description
Publication Date: April 26, 2011

Ben Franklin saved the American Revolution by seducing French Women. A gay love affair between President James Buchanan and Senator William King aided the secession movement. Woodrow Wilson’s girlfriend dictated his letters to the German Kaiser. And lesbian relationships inspired Eleanor Roosevelt to become a revolutionary crusader for equal rights. The colorful sex lives of America’s most powerful leaders have influenced social movements, government policies, elections and even wars, yet they are so whitewashed by historians that people think Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln were made of marble, not flesh and blood.

But the truth is about to come out. In One Nation Under Sex, free speech activist and notorious Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt teams up with Columbia University history professor David Eisenbach to peek behind the White House bedroom curtains and document how hidden passions have shaped public life. They unpack salacious rumors and outright scandals, showing how private affairs have driven pivotal decisions—often with horrific consequences. Along the way, they explore the origins of America’s fascination with sex scandals and explain how we can put aside out political moralism and begin focusing on the real problems that threaten our nation.

Reviews

What they didn't teach you in high school
By Phelps Gates

Larry Flynt gets his name in bigger type than his co-author (I wonder why?), but I suspect most of this was written by Eisenbach, who is a serious and well-respected historian. The emphasis is not so much on the titillation of revealing sex scandals over the centuries (actually, not much new is revealed anyhow), but in showing how these antics made a difference in the course of American history, from the Founding Fathers (and Mothers), up to Bill Clinton and beyond (to Vitter, Craig, and whoever the next rascal will be). Benjamin Franklin (still randy in his seventies) made a major contribution to the Revolution through his escapades in Paris. And the relationship between Buchanan and former vice-president William Rufus King almost certainly contributed to Buchanan's bungling of the secession crisis. Like most people, I knew about Harding's naughtiness, but not about Woodrow Wilson's, which actually had more important consequences.

The book also gives a good account of the changes in journalistic ethics over the decades. It explains how the notoriously gay Buchanan could, amazingly, get elected. And gives an excellent account of the switch from "access journalism," which allowed Roosevelt and Kennedy to get away with things that got politicians in trouble in the post-Watergate era of "gotcha journalism." The book isn't perfect: it perhaps lingers a bit too long in the Kennedy era, though I confess that I found the description of Jackie Kennedy's love affairs to be a fascinating subject that we had no idea of at the time! And the authors sometimes aren't quite as clear as they might be when they present material that is second and third (and sometimes fourth) hand. But I enjoyed reading this a lot, and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the seamier side of our country's history.

Arousing Interest in American History
By Tamara Thorne

When Bill Clinton and his cigar were being impeached for a little lewd behavior, I just couldn't understand what the big deal was. Powerful people often have powerful libidos, and I couldn't imagine that sex and politics hadn't always gone together, like peanut butter and jelly. I don't know how many times I said so, either, eyes involuntarily rolling skyward.

But I didn't have much in the way of facts to back up what I felt was true: I just knew the usual tales about Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and JFK. Then One Nation Under Sex gave me every fact (and possibly-fact) my heart desired.

Historian David Eisenbach and Hustler tycoon Larry Flynt include those famous stories and provide more detail than I've ever seen. The section on the Kennedys was a major eye-opener. JFK's non-stop randiness evidently drove Jackie to some affairs of her own and after her husband's funeral, she lost no time in hooking up with future husband Aristotle Onassis. But I couldn't blame her when I read about JFK's selfish exploits.

Further back, the story of James Buchanan and Carolina senator William King was fascinating. The long-term affair made Buchanan soft on slavery and secessionists. Dolley and James Madison are covered in fascinating detail, as are Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's multiple affairs and enduring relationship. Abe Lincoln loved to sleep with men. Back then, this wasn't considered odd, nor was it questioned by the press.

And that's something I absolutely loved about this book. As much as it's a terrific compendium of the dirty deeds that shaped history, it's a chronicle of the media's part in the public's perception of our leaders. The book leads you chronologically through the media's ever-changing spin on presidential peccadilloes, finally landing us in the Clinton era, when the press decided that the presidential mating urge made for great ratings.

Another chapter in the book that tied directly into what the media did -- or didn't do -- for about fifty years was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's manipulative dark magic. Compiling massive files on everyone who was anyone was his lifelong fetish (well, one of them) and his ability to blackmail everything and everyone from presidents to the media itself helped keep lascivious headlines at bay.

Way back in school, I loathed history. It was bland and boring. If I'd read One Nation Under Sex in high school, I would have developed an interest in history much sooner. The book is a very readable yet scholarly work with no titillation for its own sake. It's a respectable book. Its purpose is to show a side of history that's normally left out: the human side. Flynt and Eisenbach do a fine job of demonstrating the major role sex has always played in the political evolution of the United States. Highly recommended.

A fascinating look at how sex changed America
By Chris Swanson

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Before reading this book I knew a bit about American sex scandals. I knew about Ben Franklin's notorious visit to France, about Buchanan's alleged gayity, about JFK's numerous affairs and more about the sex lives of Bill Clinton and J Edgar Hoover than I ever possibly wanted to know. But I didn't know a lot of the back story, and I underestimated how important sex and sex scandals have been in forming our nation's history.

This book is really fascinating. It dragged a bit before it got to the parts on James Buchanan, but from there it went off like a shot. And the bits on Buchanan were really interesting! I'd gone in as a skeptic about his sexuality (he was never married and shacked up with another man for most of his time in Washington), but this book really drove home the point that, yes, Buchanan was gay. I was even more skeptical of the notion that Lincoln was gay, and while this book didn't change my views of that subject, it did at least offer some interesting arguments in favor of the notion.

The bits on FDR and Elanor were equally fascinating. I'd known she was rumored to be a lesbian, but hadn't known she'd lived with a lesbian couple for a while and had spent quite a bit of time with a lesbian reporter. I was also interested to read about her relationship with Franklin and how, after she found about him having an affair, it turned into a marriage quite a bit different from most.

Even more compelling was the severe damage to this nation done by J Edgar Hoover, a man who was obviously a self-loathing homosexual. His obsession with everyone's sex lives and the way he blackmailed people was truly appalling. Again, this is a story where I'd known bits and pieces, but I never realized how wide his scope was and how powerful it made him.

This isn't even getting into the details of the numerous JFK, RFK and Clinton affairs, though with the latter especially I learned quite a lot that I hadn't known. Who knew Lewinsky was the real hero of the story in many ways?

This is an excellent book for anyone with even a vague interest in American history, and I cannot recommend it enough.