History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States

Average customer rating:

Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States

Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States
Monisha Das Gupta , and Monisha Das Gupta
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Emigration & Immigration | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Activism | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Activism | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

Civil Rights | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

General | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 082233898X

Book Description

In Unruly Immigrants, Monisha Das Gupta explores the innovative strategies that South Asian feminist, queer, and labor organizations in the United States have developed to assert claims to rights for immigrants without the privileges or security of citizenship. Since the 1980s many South Asian immigrants have found the India-centered âmodel minorityâ politics of previous generations inadequate to the task of redressing problems such as violence against women, homophobia, racism, and poverty. Thus they have devised new models of immigrant advocacy, seeking rights that are mobile rather than rooted in national membership, and advancing their claims as migrants rather than as citizens-to-be. Creating social justice organizations, they have inventively constructed a transnational complex of rights by drawing on local, national, and international laws to seek entitlements for their constituencies.

Das Gupta offers an ethnography of seven South Asian organizations in the northeastern United States, looking at their development and politics as well as the conflicts that have emerged within the groups over questions of sexual, class, and political identities. She examines the ways that women’s organizations have defined and responded to questions of domestic violence as they relate to women’s immigration status; she describes the construction of a transnational South Asian queer identity and culture by people often marginalized by both mainstream South Asian and queer communities in the United States; and she draws attention to the efforts of labor groups who have sought economic justice for taxi drivers and domestic workers by confronting local policies that exploit cheap immigrant labor. Responding to the shortcomings of the state, their communities, and the larger social movements of which they are a part, these groups challenge the assumption that citizenship is the necessary basis of rights claims.

Customer Reviews:

Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States.......2007-05-14

Amazing quality. It is just as if it was brand new!

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

Average customer rating:

Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

German | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Chinese | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Mythology & Folklore | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Controversial Knowledge | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Celtic | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

Average customer rating:

BOOK REVIEW
chilling...brilliant...a MUST read...
Interesting & very Impressive with ONE Major Flaw!!
Has good points but a bad writing style
Cash-in reissue of 1980s book: note subtle title change

The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism
Robin Morgan
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Violence in Society | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0743452933

Book Description

This groundbreaking work on the psychological and political roots of terrorism by award-winning writer Robin Morgan is updated with her new introduction covering the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. In a new afterword, "Letters from Ground Zero," Morgan offers her eyewitness account of the physical and emotional devastation caused by the assault on New York's World Trade Center and the global struggle in its aftermath.

First published in 1989, The Demon Lover is now more timely than ever: a personal journey as well as a landmark work of investigative journalism. Traveling to the Middle East refugee camps, she gathered the first interviews with Palestinian women about their lives as women, and re-encountered the core connection between patriarchal societies and the inevitability of terrorism. In her final chapter, "Beyond Terror," Morgan sets forth a compelling vision of hope for the future.

Customer Reviews:

BOOK REVIEW.......2007-06-08

This book attempts to analyze the interconnectness between war, sexuality and terrorism. The author, Robin Morgan, begins her book with historical accounts of violence and terrorism that she contends existed since biblical times. Morgan maintains that terrorism can assume many shapes, for instance: Multinational corporations, governments, rebel groups such as the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and other international freedom fighters. Morgan provides several example of how terrorism is defined. One definition of terrorism, according to political science professor Yehezkel Dror, is "the use of selective intense violence by small groups to undermine democratic government, and to bring about changes (ill-defined) in regime and society..." (2001:39). The rest of the definitions she provides hold the same idea as the definition provided by Dror. Reading this book was, frankly, disturbing. The author repeatedly makes inaccurate and out of context claims perpetuating negative stereotypes of terrorism, men, women and Arab and Muslim communities.
Morgan also includes a timeline of accounts of violence against women between 1989 to 2000. In the time line she highlights such cases as the murder of Nicole Simpson by accused football player O. J. Simpson, serial killer Ted Bundy and Canadian gunman Marc Lepine. Morgan repeatedly fails to contextualize any of her theories and outlandish claims and states, "The long fuse of manhood that's been burning for centuries has, in this age of globalization, become a conflagration of heroes/martyrs/killers/. It is the era of the demon lover" (Morgan 2001:14).
At first it may appear to the reader that perhaps with the references in the book such as Franz Fannon, C. Wright Mills, Hannah Arrendt or William O'Brien that maybe Morgan's argument holds weight, but while reading it became clear that Morgan's book is far from an accurate portrayal of violence against women, terrorism or sexuality and is a disservice to, especially Arab and Muslim communities.
Within the contents of the Demon Lover, Morgan describes her two months visit to Palestine and her travels throughout the refugee camps conducting qualitative research and collecting stories from the women who live in these camps. Morgan misleads the reader by stating she doesn't want to take a tour bus with the other journalists, and specifically asserts that she doesn't want to infringe on peoples lives (2001: 250). Instead, using the accounts of Palestinian refugee women, Morgan exploits the women by contributing to the racist, stereotypical and completely inaccurate misrepresentation of Palestinian women. At one point in her book, she discusses how the World Cup soccer was on and how the men "finally" absolved from violence for a few moments to watch the game. Meanwhile the woman ran amuck "foraging" for food and burying their dead, as if Palestinian men lack the ability to mourn a lost son or sister to the atrocities of Israeli military occupation.
Morgan continually perpetuates the stereotypes of Arab men being hypersexist and preoccupied by violence. She even goes so far as to say that through this intergenerational cycle, fathers force their sons to adopt the same ideologies about violence, disowning their sons if they refuse (2001:33). She also claims that men's sexual obsession with women is central to their masculinity. According to Morgan the majority of terrorists are male and her underlying premise is, women are seen only as "tokens" and are involved in acts of terrorism because of their love for a particular man, "a demon lover," draws them in and by whom they are seduced.
Although she asserts that she doesn't support biological determinism, she continues to provide the reader with the idea that men are naturally violent and women are notoriously the peacemakers. In the final chapter, Beyond Terror: The Politics of Eros, Morgan argues that we need to abandon "the politics of Thanatos" and adopt "the politics of Ethos" (2001: 326). In other words the author calls for a solution of not subscribing to Thanatos or male/violence, but instead embracing a life of Eros or female/love.
Demon Lover poses numerous rudimentary questions and never attempts to follow through and provide solutions to the list of endless of non-contextualized claims. Although in the contents of Demon Lover, Morgan claims not to have any expertise or solutions, she manages to provide only the most simplistic solution of the embracing Ethos.
Throughout Demon Lover, Morgan makes statements and poses theories that all lack context. The detrimental effect of a lack of contextualization and the omission of accurate accounts of history leads to misinforming readers and reinforcing the stereotypes. One of the many injustices and disservices that Morgan provides in her research is she never addresses the fact that occupation and the politics of war impact societies, changing dynamics for all individuals

chilling...brilliant...a MUST read..........2006-09-20

This book has never been more important than it is today. It's prophetic, and illuminating. It will shift the view you may have of terrorism, why we're at war, and who is doing the warring, permanently. A truly 'must read' volume. Morgan's best non-fiction.

Interesting & very Impressive with ONE Major Flaw!!.......2006-01-16

First the bad news!! The constant,cloying comments about the "patriarchal/ masculinist/ male dominated" world, and all the horrors unleashed by this world got on my nerves, and were truly way overdone! OK, this is a feminist tract, but enough's enough! Imagine a book,written by male or female, this angry about the feminine sex! Who would/could publish it?! Having said that, this is definitely among the most passionate and personal books I've ever read, full of interesting ideas starting with ancient mythology about how the author feels terrorists are incubated, mainly through the lazy, macho, women-hating males out there! She builds up a good case, and there is a lot of truth to her comments, even if she does vent too much spleen! The trip to 1980's Palestine was almost worth the price of the book, even if all women all described as wonderful, educated, child rearing, usually beaten by their male counterparts,drunken, uncaring lowlifes and bullies who can't wait to dress up in their guns and ammo suits, and kill whatever enemy is current. During the 1982 Lebanon War, all the artillery noise and racket suddenly stops! Why? So all the men can take a few hours off from killing and maiming to check out the World Cup Games on TV! Probably not far from the truth, like our Super Bowl! Lots of this book is downright mesmorizing, and terrifically well done, and the basic point of domineering war-loving men loving and leaving starry eyed women is probably true! Maybe a little dated, but even with it's flaws, a page turner well worth a few hours of one's time!

Has good points but a bad writing style.......2005-08-19

This book argues several points regarding world history. First, the victims, sacrifices and heroes of wars have always been defined in terms of males; the victorious general, the dead soldier, the grunt in the trenches, etc.., despite the fact the primary victims of wars are civilians - women and children. Second, the factors that demographic, economic and political causes that lead to wars can often be attributed to a male-dominated society. Third, women by nature would probably make better rulers and do a better job of avoiding war, but the political landscape in many countries is biased against women in leadership positions.

The author presents a lot of factual and historical data to support her viewpoints. This includes interviews with war victims and criminals, citations of government documents, treaties, war plans, references to religious and historical works, and opinions by others who have explored the role of sex and gender in politics and war.

The problem with the book and why I would not recommend it is the style the author uses. Her arguments come at the reader like bullets from a machine gun, quickfire and haphazard. Facts and examples are cited in quick succession without text to place them in context. The text is divided into chapters, but the number of arguments and sources of arguments are so numerous and varied that each chapter should be broken into subsections. Overall, the points in this book are insightful and I agree with most of them. But the writing style is horrible.

Cash-in reissue of 1980s book: note subtle title change.......2003-06-28

The terrorist atrocity of 9/11 spurred a lot of writers into thought. Unfortunately, the thought was usually something like this: "I've got a book in the works, or out of print, touching on terrorism, Islam, the Israel-Palestine nightmare, etc. Those topics are going to be huge, so with a bit of tweaking to link the book to 9/11..."

Fair enough; writers have to live. So here's Robin Morgan's 1989 book, reissued with a subtle title change and a few pages of post 9/11 stream-of-consciousness typing. But this book was already anachronistic in 1989. Most feminists had moved past the sloganeering of the 1970s, in which men and women were caricatured as (respectively) death-worshipping rapists with horrible yucky genitalia, and beautiful, loving, gentle, spiritual flower-beings. But Morgan's book was firmly a product of that mindset.

So Morgan will tell you that the cause of terrorism is simpler than you think. "_The terrorist is the logical incarnation of patriarchal politics in a technological world._ The terrorist is the son practicing what the father has practiced, and claiming to have found his own identity in doing so." [Italics in original.] "The phallic malady is epidemic and systemic."

So the cause of terrorism is those dreadful humans with bollocks. Morgan's prose is also not un-bollockular. Try: "He [heterosexual men] knows that his actions are supported by the twin pillars of the State of man - the brotherhood ritual of political exigency and the brotherhood ritual of a sexual thrill in dominance. As a devotee of Thanatos, he is one with the practitioner of sado-masochistic 'play' between 'consenting adults,' as he is one with the rapist."

Some "devotees of Thanatos" and their partners and children may wonder what Thanatos is. It's Freud-speak for a supposed human death-drive, except that Morgan took Freud's fantasy a step further by declaring that "Thanatos" is exclusively male: Men are from Thanatos, women are from Eros.

Morgan's pop-Freudianism doesn't end there: sometimes a cigar is just a thrusting, phallic weapon. Morgan reveals: "The war toy, the rigid penetrating missiles, the dynamite and the blasting cap-these are at first only symbols of the message he must learn, fetishes of the ecstasy he is promised. But he must become them before he is rewarded with what the lack of ambivalence promises him: a frenzy, an excitement, an exhilaration-an orgasmic thrill in violent domination with which, he is taught, no act of lovemaking could possibly compete."

But this feels wrong, as well as tiredly shallow. Does a suicide bomber really feel sexual about the cylindrical objects he, or she, straps to her, or his, body? Other mental processes, involving religion, politics, hate, cycles of revenge, seem more relevant, more causative, than Morgan's pop-Freudian phallus fixation. Even in the 1980s, Morgan had to turn a blind eye to female terrorists like poster-girl Leila Khaled and others, whose actions were inconvenient facts Morgan dismissed as "tokens". And since Morgan counts military action by male heads of state as terrorism, she also had to turn a blind eye to the military activities of such bellicose political leaders as Meyer, Thatcher, and Indira Ghandi, whose wars were recent history when Morgan was writing. But the current terrorist wave has brought a feminisation of terrorism; increasing numbers of women suicide bombers make Morgan's focus on willies as the root of terrorism now seem quaint.

Morgan also claims that you can gauge a culture's potential for producing terrorists by assessing the status of women in that culture: the higher the status of women, the lower the potential for producing terrorist acts.

But Morgan rightly condemns US Government agencies for sponsoring wars, dictatorships, terrorists, the overthrow of democracies, and so on, particularly in the 1950s through to the 1990s. (I'm leaving Afghanistan and Iraq out of this picture, with ambivalence, though Morgan wouldn't.) But the status of women in the US is among the highest in the world. Ditto France: supporting genocide in Africa, "Rainbow-Warrior-Boum!", etc, plus childcare. While more patriarchal cultures like Thailand, Tonga, Switzerland, etc, produce somewhere between very little terrorism and none at all. Of course patriarchy is an evil; it's just not the _only_ evil in the world.

A more relevant distinction is between cultures that have universal, cheap, secular, education and those that don't. If you won't fund decent education, plenty of bad people will be glad to fill the gap, teaching hate and terrorism. There is certainly also a nexus between terrorism and the subjection of women, not only in relation to Islamism but strongly concentrated around Islamism. But Morgan's shallow book is useless as a discussion of that nexus.

There is one other problem with this book. Morgan writes about men with enormous and unrelenting disdain: she has said that she thinks hating men is proper, and (as a joke, though she expressly denied that she was joking) that perhaps heterosexual men could help the world by ceasing to exist. Me, I don't really like being hated, especially on doctrinaire grounds by someone who doesn't even know me. That's just my vested interest, of course. Still, I can't help thinking the world has enough hatred, and that Morgan's own contribution in that regard is perhaps more part of the problem than part of the solution.

Finally, there's the subtle title change. The book was originally published as _The Demon Lover: The Sexuality of Terrorism_. The new edition is called _The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism_.

I can see why the original title had to go; in the English-speaking world, post 9/11, potential buyers might be irritated by Morgan's linkage of sexuality and terrorism, also the apparent implicit hint that terrorism is sexy. The new title makes the book sound more sensible, and for that reason it is a less accurate indication of the kind of book this is.

Cheers!

Book Description

A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the history and present-day political reality of women, this fascinating book explores the efforts, achievements, as well as the setbacks involved in the movements toward equality for American women. Women's Movements in America; The Struggle for Political Rights; Women's Political Participation; The Struggle for Employment and Educational Rights; Women's Economic and Educational Status; The Struggle for Familial and Reproductive Rights; Women's Place in the Family; The Future of the Movement. Anyone interested in women and politics.

Customer Reviews:

An Excellent, Updated Survey of the Women's Movement.......2002-04-28

This just-updated history of the women's movement is an excellent introduction to the field. The book surveys the 150-year history of the movement and provides lots of good-looking graphs and tables of the current situation.

I use this book in my 2000-level course on race, gender and politics and find it very readable for my mostly 1st- and 2nd-year students. The students like the book as well.

Book Description

Starting with Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Meyerowitz uses turn-of-the-century Chicago as a case study to explore both the image and the reality of single women's experiences as they lived apart from their families. In an era when family all but defined American womanhood, these women—neither victimized nor liberated—created new social ties and subcultures to cope with the conditions of urban life.

"Brilliant. . . . Gracefully written, and mercifully free from the jargon that often plagues social history, this book is a welcome addition to literature in women's, urban, and black history."—Ann Schofield, American Historical Review

"Meyerowitz provides a splendid portrait of her subjects. . . . She deserves praise for her demographic spadework, sensitive analysis, and engaging style. This is a valuable and rewarding book."—Nancy Woloch, Journal of American History

"A state-of-the-art product of the new women's history. . . . Meyerowitz's work is an extremely useful contribution, a corrective to over-concentration on women in family, an opening to new ways of looking at single women."—Linda Gordon, Women's Review of Books

"Women Adrift not only brings together many of the most exciting insights of women's history in recent years, but Meyerowitz's particular angle on issues of work, family, sexuality, mass culture and relationships among women also encourages us to rethink these insights."—Ileen A. DeVault, Historian

Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980-1995 (Latin America Otherwise)

Average customer rating:

Great Book
different perspectives paint complete picture
A revolution that only brought suffering & death
Interesting and Informed

Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980-1995 (Latin America Otherwise)
Steve J. Stern
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

War & Peace | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Human Rights | Constitutional Law | Law | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 082232217X

Book Description

Shining and Other Paths offers the first systematic account of the social experiences at the heart of the war waged between Shining Path and the Peruvian military during the 1980s and early 1990s. Confronting and untangling the many myths and enigmas that surround the war and the wider history of twentieth-century Peru, this book presents clear and often poignant analyses of the brutal reshaping of life and politics during a war that cost tens of thousands of lives.
The contributorsâa team of Peruvian and U.S. historians, social scientists, and human rights activistsâexplore the origins, social dynamics, and long-term consequences of the effort by Shining Path to effect an armed communist revolution. The book begins by interpreting Shining Path’s emergence and decision for war as one logical culmination, among several competing culminations, of trends in oppositional politics and social movements. It then traces the experiences of peasants and refugees to demonstrate how human struggle and resilience came together in grassroots determination to defeat Shining Path, and explores the unsuccessful efforts of urban shantytown dwellers, as well as rural and urban activists, to build a âthird pathâ to social justice. Integral to this discussion is an examination of women’s activism and consciousness during the years of the crisis. Finally, this book analyzes the often paradoxical and unintended legacies of this tumultuous period for social and human rights movements, and for presidential and military leadership in Peru.
Extensive field research, broad historical vision, and strong editorial coordination enable the authors to write a coherent and deeply humanistic account, one that draws out the inner tragedies, ambiguities, and conflicts of the war.
Providing historically grounded explication of the conflicts that reshaped contemporary Peru, Shining and Other Paths will be widely read by Latin Americanists, historians, anthropologists, gender theorists, sociologists, political scientists, and human rights activists.

Contributors. Jo-Marie Burt, Marisol de la Cadena, Isabel Coral Cordero, Carlos IvÃ¡n Degregori, IvÃ¡n Hinojosa, Carlos BasombrÃo Iglesias, Florencia E. Mallon, Nelson Manrique, Hortensia MuÃ±oz, Enrique Obando, Patricia Oliart, Ponciano del Pino H., JosÃ© Luis RÃ©nique, Orin Starn, Steve J. Stern

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2005-07-16

I have read many books on Sendero Luminoso. This is one of the best. Some of the contributers are genious. If you have any interest in the war in Peru from 1980 to 1995, you simply must read this book.

different perspectives paint complete picture.......2005-06-27

stern does a great job in collecting essays that tell the story of the rise and fall of the shining path... I had mcuh fun reading this book.

A revolution that only brought suffering & death.......2003-08-04

"Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980 - 1995," by Editor Steve J. Stern is a collection of essays that vividly documents a revolution that only brought suffering and death. This five-part book traces the roots of the Shining Path from its heady beginning to the conquest that failed.

Part One is dry. However, Part Two & Three generate much more interest. I found Ponciano del Pino, Nelson Manrique, Orin Starr, Jo-Marie Burt and Patricia Oliart the best of the bunch. They crystallized the subject...bringing it to life and provided stimulating insights.

Shining Path started in rural Ayacucho in the late 1970's and eventually made its way into the urban centers, particularly Villa El Salvador outside of Lima nearly ten years later. Initially Shining Path was ethical and moral. The Founding Father of the movement Professor Abimael Guzman instructed his Indian followers to punish adultery, alcoholism, vagrancy, robbery and cattle rustling. Moreover, the young flocked to the revolutionary rhetoric of a "people's war."

Early on the Shining Path maintained good ties with the peasants in the countryside. However, this did not last for long because in 1983 - 1984 the armed forces implemented a brutal "dirty war" that forced the guerrillas away from traditional regions of support and into new territory where they too used fear and intimidation tactics against the local peasant population.

Eventually, the Shining Path went out of control...conducting terrible massacres against unarmed civilians and forcing children into its ranks. The tide turned against the Shining Path with the 1990 election of President Alberto Fujimori. The new president accelerated the organization of self-defense groups among the unprotected peasant population with the distribution of shotguns, rifles and handguns.

The unfortunate part of the Shining Path revolution was that the poor were trapped in violence from both sides. However, the true downfall of the Shining Path is that at the end they were nothing but ruthless terrorists who preyed on the poor.

Bert Ruiz

Interesting and Informed.......2002-05-14

This book collects the thoughts of Peruvians and Peruvianists on the terrible decade of the 1980s - the most thorough and nuanced account of Sendero Luminoso I have read, with attention to many events in a variety of regions of the country. The reader really walks away with a sense of what this period was like for the people who lived through it.

Cold War Women: The International Activities of American Women's Organisations

Average customer rating:

Cold War Women: The International Activities of American Women's Organisations
Helen Laville
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0719058562

Book Description

Cold War Women examines how the internationalist ambitions of American women’s organizations in the years 1945 to 1960 gave way to other concerns. In the emerging Cold War, American women abandoned their relationship with their foreign sisters in favor of solidarity with their national brothers. Far from being advocates of internationalism, American women had become agents for Americanism. Confronting a propaganda campaign from Soviet-backed women’s organizations, American women tried to export a vision of the American way of life and of women’s proper place within it.

Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)

Average customer rating:

catering to paranoid intolerance
Phyllis Schlafly: A Catalyst in America's Shift to the Right
Big Book on a Giant Figure in American Politics
To disagree with somebody, first find out where they are coming from

Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)
Donald T. Critchlow
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Activism | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0691070024

Book Description

Longtime activist, author, and antifeminist leader Phyllis Schlafly is for many the symbol of the conservative movement in America. In this provocative new book, historian Donald T. Critchlow sheds new light on Schlafly's life and on the unappreciated role her grassroots activism played in transforming America's political landscape.

Based on exclusive and unrestricted access to Schlafly's papers as well as sixty other archival collections, the book reveals for the first time the inside story of this Missouri-born mother of six who became one of the most controversial forces in modern political history. It takes us from Schlafly's political beginnings in the Republican Right after the World War II through her years as an anticommunist crusader to her more recent efforts to thwart same-sex marriage and stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

Schlafly's political career took off after her book A Choice Not an Echo helped secure Barry Goldwater's nomination. With sales of more than 3 million copies, the book established her as a national voice within the conservative movement. But it was Schlafly's bid to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment that gained her a grassroots following. Her anti-ERA crusade attracted hundreds of thousands of women into the conservative fold and earned her a name as feminism's most ardent opponent. In the 1970s, Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum, a Washington-based conservative policy organization that today claims a membership of 50,000 women.

Filled with fresh insights into these and other initiatives, Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism provides a telling profile of one of the most influential activists in recent history. Sure to invite spirited debate, it casts new light on a major shift in American politics, the emergence of the Republican Right.

Customer Reviews:

catering to paranoid intolerance.......2006-02-08

Ms Schlafly's world-view would be laughable if it were not so intolerant.

Phyllis Schlafly: A Catalyst in America's Shift to the Right.......2005-11-08

Donald T. Critchlow has written a timely and much needed examination of the rise of conservatism in American political culture through the life of Phyllis Schlafly. For too long Schlafly's importance has been obfuscated by historians intent on discrediting her rather than noting her importance. Critchlow fills this gap. He brings to life Schlafly's political career beginning in the anticommunist fervor of the 1950s to her role in shaping Republican defense policy during the 1970s to the fight over the ERA. He also includes an important assessment of Schlafly's present political activities.

Based on extensive archival research from various libraries and institutions, Critchlow's examination of Schlafly deserves the attention it has already received by the academic community and the press, including such publications as the New Yorker. This prestigious magazine included Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism as one of its fall book selections, which testifies to the book's important insights and balanced interpretation.

Big Book on a Giant Figure in American Politics.......2005-10-26

Finally, Phyllis Schlafly gets her scholarly due. While historians have focused on the periphery of politics -- dwelling into ever narrow corners and cracks of the American Left -- Phyllis Schlafly has had no honest assessment. Plenty of dishonest, superficial assessment based on hand-me-down "that terrible woman" stories, but little more. (...).

Professor Critchlow is the dean of U.S. policy historians and he has taken a brave step tackling a figure so unpopular among academics. Then again, I am reminded of that member of the chattering classes who said, "I can't believe Nixon won , I don't know a single person who voted for him!" Critchlow batters that academic insularity to explain how and why Schlafly's message spawned "grassroots conservatism." Let's hope some who would rather not hear, do listen.

The alternative offered by Critchlow's study is, to take a quote from one of her best-selling titles,

"A Choice, Not an Echo" of the silly things constantly said
about her and other movement conservatives.

Wake up historians (left or right), you have nothing to lose but your ignorance!

Jonathan Bean
Southern Illinois University

To disagree with somebody, first find out where they are coming from.......2005-10-01

Donald T. Critchlow, the ever-prolific profssor of policy studies has performed a daunting task. In this book, he wrote a critical but balanced biography of Phyllis Schlafly.

Schlafly is the female new right activist who claims sole responsibility for defeating the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982. Previous biographies about her were blatantly partisan projects because their authors either attacked or fawned over their subject. The long-time far right activist engenders strong feelings among people familiar with her work; you either love or hate her.

Phyllis Schlafly first appeared in national politics in 1964. That year, she wrote `A choice: Not an echo' which tried to explain why Goldwater was the `sensible' choice. Yet, because Johnson then-rode public sympathy over the Kennedy assassination, he won a landslide and she temporarily receded from public view. After fallout with the National Federation of Republican Women, she formed her own women's organization, the Eagle Forum.

The Eagle Forum's veritable heyday came in the late 1970's/early 1980's when Schlafly came back onto the national stage. She became the New Right's favorite speaker against feminism/`Women's Lib'. Although Schlafly herself was a Harvard-trained lawyer and accomplished political activist, she instead emphasized that she was `just a housewife' who genuinely enjoyed mothering six kids. Schlafly consequently allowed the male conservatives to oppose ERA ratification efforts without themselves appearing sexist; `They' also supported women participating in politics.

This woman speaking out against women's liberation also made for effective media coverage because it exposed political divisions among women themselves. The women who joined anti-ERA ratification efforts were older, more religious and had less formal education than their pro-ERA counterparts. Viewing homemaking as their identity, `pro family' women felt that the ERA ultimately called their own self-worth into question. Because they were so content with their homemaking role they did not want to concede that the same role was fact limiting for other women who wanted something else/more and freedom to pursue their freedoms. Having strictly defined social and legal limits thus gave ERA opponents the illusion of security even if the world did not always run as smoothly.

Schlafly ironically has experienced her own sex discrimination. In spite of her best efforts, Ronald Reagan did not appoint her Secretary of Defense. She also has failed to get herself elected to public office. Despite MANY attempts made over the past 30 years---the `giant citizen base' which she always claims to speak on behalf of ultimately never transformed into electoral votes. These failures alternately prevent and save Schlafly from being held accountable by the `taxpayers'. She would not be able to function in an environment which demands a certain degree of party and/or ideological bipartisanship.

Schlafly's positions for creationism, one-size-fits all reading instruction, and opposition to vaccines are noticeably downplayed by many other conservatives. Many other conservatives know that those areas do not deliver enough voters in order for them to win an election. Because most people continue to support the `liberal' position in these areas, Schlafly's influence ironically is restricted to certain `women's issues'. For somebody who considers herself an `honorary male' such political limits must be the ultimate irony.

Critchlow notes that she continues to control the Eagle Forum, despite the token mentoring of younger conservative women who now join this organization through collegiate and youth chapters. The Eagle Forum remains an active force in American politics, but increasingly is being supplanted by `younger' organizations like the Independent Women's Forum who have a `fresh' appearance and concede the feminist movement has some merits such as the Independent Women's Forum. Because any organization needs regular officer elections/leadership changes in order to keep their group fresh and responsive to member needs and the charter, I am curious what will happen to the Eagle Forum when Schlafly dies?

He also examines the contradictions between Schafly's public gay-bashing and herself having a gay son. In 1992 John Schlafly was outed as gay, verifying that GLBT people do come from all families. Schlafly is the first to insist that she did everything `right' and promoted heterosexuality, but still cannot explain away her son's sexuality. Presently, Schlafly does less public attacking of gays than the other new right organizations, but she still labels them a threat---essentially labeling her own son a threat. John's public support for mom's political activities actually might belie a more complicated private relationship as a result.

This book's only real flaw is that in addition to a portrait of Schlafly, Critchlow then attempts to talk about the American right in general at some depth. He argues the conservative movement impacted American politics, even if not in the exact ways which the groups and/or public figures intended.

Although it's necessary to know that Schlafly's ultimate start in politics came as a researcher for the infamous red-hunter Senator Joseph McCarthy (R Wisconsin), a discussion of the right in general does not work in this same book. Agreeing that some comparison of leadership similarities and differences among other new right women is needed at some point, I think that he veered off his thesis during a lot of this other material and forgot what this particular book was supposed to be about during those points. These portions of his book are still scholarly, but subsequently become a case of trying to do too much with too little pages. Critchlow would have been better served by writing a second general book on the American right and gender.

The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)

Average customer rating:

Superb and Genius

The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)
Dorothy Sue Cobble
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Feminist Theory | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0691123683

Book Description

American feminism has always been about more than the struggle for individual rights and equal treatment with men. There's also a vital and continuing tradition of women's reform that sought social as well as individual rights and argued for the dismantling of the masculine standard. In this much anticipated book, Dorothy Sue Cobble retrieves the forgotten feminism of the previous generations of working women, illuminating the ideas that inspired them and the reforms they secured from employers and the state. This socially and ethnically diverse movement for change emerged first from union halls and factory floors and spread to the "pink collar" domain of telephone operators, secretaries, and airline hostesses. From the 1930s to the 1980s, these women pursued answers to problems that are increasingly pressing today: how to balance work and family and how to address the growing economic inequalities that confront us. The Other Women's Movement traces their impact from the 1940s into the feminist movement of the present.

The labor reformers whose stories are told in The Other Women's Movement wanted equality and "special benefits," and they did not see the two as incompatible. They argued that gender differences must be accommodated and that "equality" could not always be achieved by applying an identical standard of treatment to men and women. The reform agenda they championed--an end to unfair sex discrimination, just compensation for their waged labor, and the right to care for their families and communities--launched a revolution in employment practices that carries on today.

Unique in its range and perspective, this is the first book to link the continuous tradition of social feminism to the leadership of labor women within that movement.

Customer Reviews:

Superb and Genius.......2003-12-15

A brilliant novel that sets precedents.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books