The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE WEEK PICK

Equal parts investigative reporting and cultural criticism, this is a look at the sex lives of young adults in post-Roe v. Wade, post-#MeToo America—and how the challenges they face are harbingers of what’s coming for the rest of us.

As a college student, award-winning journalist Carter Sherman, along with several members of her sorority, was interviewed by a writer looking for salacious details about their sex lives. But the sex the girls were having—or the lack thereof—seemed disappointing, and their stories didn’t make the book’s final cut. A decade later, young Americans are having less sex than past generations, and the sex they are having is infinitely more complicated. Sherman, who has spent years traveling the country 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 reveals how (mis)education, the internet, and politics have not only reshaped relationships but also unleashed a nationwide power struggle over the future of sex. From abortion clinics crowded with young patients, to “Dating with Dignity” seminars at the National Pro-Life Summit, to school board battles over what students should 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 Americans’ access to rights and resources, they are fighting back.

In the tradition of Rebecca Traister and Lisa Taddeo, The Second Coming explores how the ballot box has infiltrated the bedroom, and the breaking point as a nation we’ve reached as a result.