A fascinating read. Benes somehow manages to offend everyone while causing you to laugh and cheer him on as he does it. The obvious strength of the book is his careful and comprehensive research. With nearly 1000 citations, Benes refuses to allow his arguments to fail based on the science or the facts. Rather, he has crafted 10 fascinating essays that challenge common sense and accepted norms about how we have arrived at this particular moment in our political, economic, and religious history. These 10 essays are each carefully planned and cover a broad range of topics revolving around the question of how human sexuality has influenced human history in strange, often funny but rarely obvious ways. As a student of Public Health and having spent time living in Africa studying the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the chapter on the "Tragedy of Condoms" was a welcome critique. Benes details the early years of the HIV pandemic and how the responses of western governments to deliver 'aid' to stricken nations were a massive failure. I will leave Benes to deliver the argument in full, but the story of how good intentions can cause even greater harm is one that carries many lessons for today. Ultimately, each of these essays is sure to contain some lesson or nugget of knowledge that you never realised was true. Throughout this book, Benes takes a decisively argumentative stand, and is not shy about taking that stand. However, his arguments are never condescending. He never asks his reader to agree with him. Rather, he asks the readers to check their preconceptions at the door before reading. When you finally put this book down, you are sure to find yourself feeling a little smarter and at the very least, entertained.