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Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future
by Carter Sherman
Equal parts investigative reporting and cultural criticism, The Second Coming is a look at the sex lives of young adults in post-Roe America.
As a college student, award-winning journalist Carter Sherman, along with several members of her sorority, was interviewed by a writer eagerly looking for salacious details about their sex lives. But the sex the girls were having—or the lack thereof—seemed disappointing, and they didn't make the book's final cut. A decade later, young Americans are still having less sex than past generations, and the sex they are having has become infinitely more complicated. Carter, who has spent years traveling the country and reporting on gender and sexuality, wanted to find out why.
Based on more than one hundred interviews with teenagers and young adults, activists, and experts, The Second Coming is a comprehensive investigation into how (mis)education, the internet, and politics are changing the ways in which young people experience sex, love, and relationships. From "Dating with Dignity" seminars at the National Pro-Life Summit to abortion clinics crowded with young people to school board battles over what students are allowed to read, think, and feel, we meet folks from both sides of the aisle who are well-informed, empowered, and active (even if not always sexually). And as measures are taken to limit young people's access to rights and resources, they are fighting back.
In the tradition of Rebecca Traister and Lisa Taddeo, The Second Coming is a nuanced exploration of how life outside the bedroom directly impacts everything within it, and the breaking point as a nation we've reached as a result.
"[A] clear-eyed snapshot of Gen Z without the usual hand-wringing." —Publishers Weekly
"Sherman concludes that today's youth are remarkably informed, involved, and motivated to advocate for the sexually progressive beliefs that are now under siege." —Booklist
"Carter Sherman is like a modern-day explorer, navigating terrain that we desperately need to discover, uncover, and illuminate. The Second Coming exposes profoundly necessary conversations around human sexuality, and Sherman is a guiding light for how we can all be more brave, educated, open-minded, and compassionate in building a more hopeful future." —Chelsey Goodan, youth empowerment speaker and bestselling author of Underestimated: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls
"Finally, a book that does young people and sex justice! Carter Sherman has written a timely and thrilling examination about the intersection of politics, culture and sexuality that will surely become a classic." —Jessica Valenti, New York Times bestselling author of Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
This information about The Second Coming was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Carter Sherman is a reproductive health and justice reporter at The Guardian whose reporting has garnered numerous awards and nominations, including a National Press Club Award, a Scripps Howard Award, and four Emmy nominations. Previously a senior reporter for VICE News, Carter has written for publications like Elle, Ms. Magazine, and Los Angeles magazine, and been interviewed by outlets like NPR's Fresh Air, PBS NewsHour, and MSNBC. Carter lives in New York with her partner.
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