ZOOLOGIST, SEX RESEARCHER

Controversial Sex Researcher.

In the repressive social climate of the late 1940s and early 1950s Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953) were widely criticized, and he was subject to personal attacks. In 1953, for example, the Chicago Tribune called him a "real menace to society." Yet his extensive research into Americans' sexual habits transformed the way they think about their sexuality.

Early Years.

Kinsey was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, where his father taught at Stevens Institute of Technology. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1916 and received an Sc.D. (doctor of science) degree in zoology at Harvard University in 1920. Later that year he went to teach zoology at Indiana University, where he remained for most of his life.

Research on Gall Wasps.

During the 1930s Kinsey...