Recovery of Family Life

The Sexual Revolution, which has been underway since the 1950s, is a rolling revolution-a set of unfinishable ambitions,all affectingmarriage and family life.Feminists want to"liberate" women from childrearing as well as the home andbuild a world "beyond gender";progressivesaspire to build a society where human beings can choose their natures; and sexual liberation theorists would take human beings "beyond repression."These ideologies have sunk deeply into our culture and our political regime. It is well past time to ask the uncomfortable questions about whether these ideologies betray human nature and undermine human happiness. The Recovery of Family Lifedefends marriage and family life while exposing the limits and blind spots in these powerful revolutionary ideologies. After suggesting a general framework within which to understand the ends and means of family policy, Scott Yenor explores what a liberal society should seek to accomplish inmarriage and family policy. The framework is applied to some of today's most important public policy debates on such controversial topics as gay rights, pornography, population decline, women's equality, rape law, the age of consent, and welfare state politics. Those advocating for the rolling revolutionoften point toward necessary reforms, but they offeran incomplete picture of human flourishing. In an attempt to recover a healthier vision of life, Yenorasks that thosealready resisting the rolling revolution evaluate their own assumptions and aims anew: advocates on both sides of the partisan aisle stand at risk of operating with truncated narratives. Public policy can be an important tool to help the resistance, but only if informed by a deeper visionin whichmarriage and family fit into the broader political regime. The Recovery of Family Lifecombines a focus on first principles with practical advice forlawmakersabout how to undo the damage our policies have done.