A lively compendium of what Gloria Steinem didn’t tell you about feminist ideas and why they matter.
How—and why—do young feminists’ goals differ from those of their mothers and grandmothers? A philosophy professor has answers.
Despite its title, this energetic overview of several centuries of feminist thought offers few self-help tips until, late in the book, Hay suggests ways to deal with annoyances like “manspreading” and “mansplaining.” Instead, with a winning mix of scholarship and irreverence, the author lays out the philosophical underpinnings of feminism and how they have evolved through three waves: the first focused on female suffrage, the second on political and legal goals, and the third on the intersection of sexism and injustices such as “racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, or transphobia.” Hay traces women’s oppression partly to the unequal results of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden: Adam simply “gets kicked out of his parents’ basement and told he has to grow up and get a job” while Eve and her descendants were thrown “under a bus.” The author also shows the clashing responses that women’s predicaments have inspired in fervent theorists and activists—e.g., Aristotle and John Stuart Mill, “Angry Feminists” and “Girl Power Feminists,” “trans-inclusive feminists” and “trans-exclusionary radical feminists.” Hay doesn’t mention Gloria Steinem but sums up the impact of many other signal figures, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Audre Lorde, Susan Brownmiller, Shulamith Firestone, and Kimberlé Crenshaw. Hay’s approach has its limits: Focused on theories born in capitalist economies, she takes too little note of the ideas of feminists outside North America whose support for socialist programs has helped their democracies race past the U.S. and Canada in achieving widely shared goals such as paid parental leave. Still, this book speaks to second- and third-wavers alike and could build worthy intergenerational bridges.
A lively compendium of what Gloria Steinem didn’t tell you about feminist ideas and why they matter.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-324-00309-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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