SOURCE: "The Scientist as Sex Crusader: Alfred C. Kinsey and American Culture," in American Quarterly, Vol. XXIX, No. 5, Winter, 1977, pp. 563-89.

In the following essay, Morantz presents a historical overview of the cultural shift aided by publication of Kinsey's work and provides detailed biographical analysis of Kinsey's motives for studying human sexuality.

In January 1948, Robert Latou Dickinson, noted gynecologist and sex researcher, dashed off a note to his friend and colleague Alfred Charles Kinsey. Dickinson's copy of the newly published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, which he had awaited "with one of the keenest anticipations of a lifetime," had arrived. "I have my copy at last of SBHM!" he informed Kinsey. "Glory to God!"¹ In a lively correspondence throughout the 1940s the two men had shared enthusiasm for Kinsey's studies in human sexuality, their mutual respect enhanced by appreciation of the social significance of this work. Given...