Once upon a time, sex was considered to be a private issue— and even a nonissue—within mainstream American society. Matters relating to sex never were discussed in public. The accepted view was that sex was an act between a man and a woman who were married. Its primary purpose was reproductive in nature. Beginning in the mid-1960s, however, what came to be regarded as a sexual revolution took place in the United States. This revolution mostly involved younger Americans.

The sexual revolution was the outgrowth of numerous lifestyle and cultural changes that had been developing throughout the century and reached their high point in the 1960s. These changes date from the 1920s and the coming of the Jazz (see entry under 1900s—Music in volume 1) Age. Back then, sexual issues became a part of social interaction among the young. Sex entered literature and popular...