God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion

A remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. As story that is far less about feminist liberation than one might image, Mehta demonstrates how religion both drives and adapts to technological change.