A Book to Far

This physically impressive book does not live up to the promise implicit in the author's quirky, but interesting, previous works. Problems start at a low level. Typographical errors of a sort impossible to miss (e.g., missing or superfluous words) appear every two or three pages and suggest that the manuscript was not carefully proofread. I could live with Jones' discursive style in his earlier books, but in this one entire paragraphs are repeated verbatim. (Compare page 368 to page 522.)
The most serious problems in this book involve content. I am sympathetic with the author's thesis that modern society is harmed by sexual promiscuity and that nowadays sex is frequently used as a tool to manipulate others. Jones' criticism of Kinsey appears, in particular, to be on target. But in an effort to tie together the various vignettes that make up this book, Jones seems to lend undue credence to various conspiracy theories and to overreach in the conclusions he draws from the available evidence. The author's denial of the reality of mental illness is not the only part of this book in which he comes across as more Catholic than the Pope. (See John Paul II's 11/30/96 address to the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health-Care Workers.) ( )

I cannot recommend this book enough!

At 600+ pages Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control is something of a tome but well worth the read. If it were not well written, the subject matter alone would be enough to lead one from first to last page. But the book is very well-written, the style engaging enough to carry the reader through the material briskly.

Libido Dominandi is essentially a history book. It is the history of an idea: sexual liberation as a means to power. ‘It is not a new idea,’ says its author, E. Michael Jones. ‘[The idea] lies at the heart of the story of Samson and Delilah. The idea that sin was a form of slavery is central to the writings of Saint Paul. Saint Augustine, in his magnum opus… divided the world into two cities, the City of God, which loves God to the extinction of self, and the City of Man, which loves self to the extinction of God. Augustine describes the City of Man as “lusting to dominate the world” but at the same time “itself dominated by its passion for dominion.” Libido Dominandi, [this] passion for dominion, then, is a paradoxical project, practiced invariably by people who are themselves in thrall to the same passions they incite in others to dominate them.

While Mr. Jones can see this idea playing out in the Samson and Delilah story and ancient Israel’s frequent falling for the orgiastic cults of its day, Libido Dominandi relates the story of this vicious idea’s modern history. He begins his detailed account of the sexual liberation movement’s ebb and flow throughout history with the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 and traces its’ every twisted turn and monstrous morphing to the present day. It is an eye-opening, sobering and, at times, a shocking story of the most sordid souls and their endless quest to soil everything that is pure and good in this world. ( )