“Epstein’s magisterial analysis is thorough and nuanced. . . . The Quest for Sexual Health will prove to be a field defining work for scholars who work at the intersections of sexuality, science, and medicine, but Epstein’s masterful analysis of ‘sexual health’ as an object of knowledge will be very useful for historians of science generally.”

Isis

“The Quest for Sexual Health is impressive in its scope, scholarship and depth of analysis, its appeal going well beyond the field of sexual health itself: I would in fact be happy to defy any medical sociologist to claim they could not find an interesting or relevant topic in this book.”

Sociology of Health and Illness

“An erudite, groundbreaking book.” 

Choice

“The pinnacle of a body of work deftly tracing the politics of knowledge surrounding sexuality, in this book Epstein offers a kaleidoscopic analysis of what happens when ‘sexual’ and ‘health’ are conjoined. Epstein has no unitary ‘take’ on what sexual health is or what it does, nor is he making a judgment call as to whether it’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’; rather, he follows its effects across a wide variety of social institutions. This ‘ethnography of a discourse’ sketches a genealogy of sexual health that resists neat, tidy, linear explanations. Using scholarly journals, government and nongovernmental agency documents, news media, key informant interviews, and participant observation, The Quest for Sexual Health demonstrates that sexual health’s flexibility is what makes it so useful.”

Social History of Medicine

“A thoroughly researched book that contributes to modern foundations of sexual health education across disciplines in higher education, medical education, and community-based health settings. Indeed, the book serves both as a primer and deep dive into the ‘elusive ideal’ of sexual health, as the subtitle suggests. In an age when men who have sex with men are still limited in ways to donate blood, drag queens are supposedly grooming children, transgender folks’ access to care is under threat, and a cure for HIV/AIDS remains on the horizon, it is clear sexual health remains a cultural battleground as The Quest for Sexual Health continues.”

Contemporary Sociology

“Masterful. . . . Epstein demonstrates that the contest over sexual health’s meaning extends beyond the normative question of what is sexually healthy, illustrating the framing of a public problem justifies some solutions and forecloses others. A vital contribution to critical public health, this will be mind-expanding for many readers. It is also useful as a case study pulling back part of the veil on US public health policymaking, highlighting both antiexpertise tendencies, and the porosity of policymaking to grassroots advocates on both sides of the political spectrum.”

American Journal of Sociology

“Epstein’s analysis contributes in-depth and comprehensive historical narratives regarding the notion and the practices of sexual health that have developed in the twentieth century.”

Sexualities

"This book is rich, thought provoking, and timely. Epstein provides an insightful and meticulous analysis that brings together the multiple layers of social, cultural, political, and institutional processes that shape the amorphous and ubiquitous term of sexual health."

Jennifer Reich, University of Colorado Denver

"A major work. The Quest for Sexual Health is likely to change the way we think about the field of sexual health for years to come. This is the kind of critical scholarship that is truly a pleasure to read. I am convinced that it will quickly come to be recognized as the definitive study on the field of 'sexual health.'"

Richard G. Parker, Columbia University