Brought to you by Chesterton House and COLLIS Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture
Was the Church Right About the Sexual Revolution? Taking Stock of a Failed Experiment
April 9, 2025
6:30 pm EST | 111 The Knoll Rd
*Registration Required
Few movements have had as much social transformation as the sexual revolution. More freedom, more sex, more control over how and when we reproduce—the sexual revolution promised a happier and more equitable future. Paradoxically, however, recent research has suggested that women are less happy now than half a century ago. A slew of books in recent years now question whether the sexual revolution overpromised and underdelivered. Join us for a conversation with Mary Eberstadt on taking stock of the sexual revolution—and whether the Church predicted what we’re seeing today.
Mary Eberstadt ’83; Panula Chair in Christian Culture, Catholic Information Center
Mary Eberstadt is an American writer, and author of several influential books including How the West Really Lost God; Adam and Eve after the Pill; and Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. She also authored a novel called The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism, which debuted as a stage-play in 2017. She has written for many journals and magazines, and her work has been translated into numerous languages.
Mrs. Eberstadt is a senior research fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute, and she holds the Panula Chair at the Catholic Information center in Washington, DC. Her early career includes two years as a speechwriter to an American Secretary of State, George Shultz, and another year as speechwriter to a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick. She holds honorary doctorates in humane letters from Seton Hall University in New Jersey and from Magdalen College, New Hampshire.
Mary Eberstadt is delighted to be appearing this week at her alma mater. She grew up in Central New York, and she enjoys several personal ties to Cornell, where she graduated magna cum laude with a double major in Philosophy and Government. Her senior paper, on Immanuel Kant’s theory of aesthetic judgment, was supervised in part by a mentor who was one of the titans of
Cornell’s philosophy faculty, the late Norman Kretzmann. Mary resided throughout her undergraduate years in Telluride House, and she worked for four years as a special assistant in the Philosophy Department.
Finally, Mary is also embarking in 2025 on a new, five-year, multidimensional project, “Remembering Upstate New York,” dedicated to bringing the region’s extraordinary history and culture to new literary and theatrical life. Updates about the project, its team, and her other work can be found on her website, maryeberstadt.com
