Content area
Full Text
No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women by Estelle B. Freedman. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002, 464 pp., $26.00 hardcover.
Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End by Sara M. Evans. New York: Free Press, 2003, 320 pp., $26.00 hardcover.
Feminism in the Heartland by Judith Ezekiel. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2002, 9 39 39 pp., $65.00 hardcover, $24.95 paper.
"Think globally, act locally" has been a popular refrain of 20th-century social activism. Environmentalists, peace and civil rights activists, and feminists have reminded us that we must pursue liberation, justice, and tolerance in our day-to-day lives in ways that reflect our place in, and commitment to, our global society. Through these three books on feminisma history of feminism in theory and praxis worldwide, a critical assessment of second-wave feminism in the United States, and an analysis of radical feminism in the "heartland"-we have meaningful and important tools for conceptualizing, teaching, and historicizing feminism theoretically and practically. Together, they illustrate not only what feminism is and who feminists were and are, but also how feminists have articulated goals, strategized for social change, and devised tactics to meet their ends. They allow us to see how feminism has changed over time, not only in ways that bind us as a global community of feminists, differences and all, but also in ways that make sense only in particular locations.
No Turning Back offers the broadest perspective on feminism, taking into account the political, economic, and cultural forces that gave rise to feminism as well as the nuances of feminist expressions in a variety of places and times. The rise of feminism coincided with the rise of capitalism, which fundamentally changed family dynamics to enhance men's economic power, and with these shifts, emergent political theories of individual rights extended privileges to men exclusively. In response, feminist movements highlighted the unjustness of these disparities and sought the recognition of women's economic worth and political rights. As a result, feminism originated in Europe and North America after about 1800. Feminism, then, is inherently Western, but Estelle Freedman allows that elsewhere, "abundant forms of women's resistance to men's patriarchal authority predated Western democratic theories" (2) and thus "feminisms" is a more accurate term.
Freedman...