As someone with a specialized degree in Visual Communications, I’m living proof that anyone can become a published 18th-19th century historian. That said, I would never have pictured a legendary pornographer joining our ranks. Yet that is exactly what happened when Hustler publisher and free speech-activist Larry Flynt teamed up with David Eisenbach, a professor of American political history at Columbia University. The result is a tremendously decadent and unique book titled, One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the Course of American History. According to the publisher, this book "peeks behind the White House bedroom curtains and documents how hidden passions have shaped America's public life."

Billed as a collection of “history changing sex scandals” these are the salacious tidbits that have been apparently whitewashed from American textbooks. In an interview for Salon magazine Flynt stated why he wrote the book in the first place: “Well, we're often preoccupied with it even in our present society. Over the last 30 years there were a lot of corrupt politicians – usually involving sexual scandals. I just thought it would be interesting to go back and start with the Founding Fathers and see if they still existed. I was amazed it was so prevalent.” Obviously meant to be more entertaining than educational, the intent of the book is serious nonetheless. And by co-authoring it with a professor from Columbia, Flynt has added an element of scholarship. Although I have yet to read it or examine its sources, I am intrigued to say the least, especially in the sections on the Founding Fathers.

So what did Flynt find? Of course Thomas Jefferson’s renowned sexual relationship with Sally Hemings, a slave girl who he fathered multiple children with is included, as well as Benjamin Franklin’s infidelities while living in France. Franklin, perhaps the biggest playboy of all the Founders is actually credited with publishing a tabloid newspaper that had the first-ever sex advice column. It seems that Flynt and Franklin may have been kindred spirits. James Madison’s wife Dolly (and her sisters) are said to have thrown epic parties at the early White House which often included lots of wine and members of the Continental Army. According to the book, one of the president’s cabinet members said to him, “I know you don't want to hear this, but your wife has single-handedly turned the White House into a brothel.” Alexander Hamilton’s rarely discussed sex scandal is included. Apparently Hamilton was having an affair with a married woman while serving as the secretary of the treasury. Her husband, a gentleman named James Reynolds, began to blackmail Hamilton until word of it reached Congress. Following a formal investigation, it was determined that Hamilton had not used any of the state money to cover his tracks and was entrapped by the situation.

Although I doubt that Larry Flynt will become the next Bruce Catton, he does have an obvious gift for salacious entertainment. At the least, "One Nation Under Sex" sounds like a great bedside read. In closing his interview for Salon, Flynt offered up the book’s affect on his own perspective of America by taking the rest of us to task. He said, “Historians really get under my skin because I think they're the most anal-retentive group of professionals I've ever met. They can look at Mount Rushmore and get writer's cramps. Historians never wanted to believe that this magnificent man who drafted the Declaration of Independence had actually fathered children by a black slave. The publishers of history books tend to be conservative and they only want to know about policy and politics. They don't want to know about sex. That's why it's left out of these books and has been for centuries.”