All the debate and acrimony over restraints on women’s reproductive rights in the current presidential campaign season has some of us longing for some good old-fashioned, mid-20th Century, no-holds-barred feminists to jump into the fray. Women’s History Month gives us an opportunity to remember and celebrate the now mostly silenced sisters like Betty Friedan. For a jolt of reality, try “Interviews with Betty Friedan,” published by one of our partners, the University of Mississippi Press. Then, pick up some of the other titles available on Diversebooks.net at discounts that explore the lives of women who have made a difference in the lives of many people.
Interviews with Betty Friedan, by Janann Sherman, $18 (List Price: $20), University of Mississippi Press, September 2002, ISBN: 9781578064809, pp. 224.
Friedan’s landmark book, The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, has been credited as the spark to one of the most significant social uprisings ever. The mother of the Women’s Movement died in 2006, but this book captured some of her rare, memorable and revealing interviews– forums she avoided whenever possible. This volume makes her observations on a wide range of issues accessible to new generations of students and scholars.
Toni Morrison, What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction, edited by Carolyn C. Denard, $27, (List Price: $30), University of Mississippi Press, April 2008, ISBN: 9781604730173, pp. 212.
This collection of the nonfiction writings of the extraordinary, Nobel-prize-winning novelist spans three decades of her life — from her time as an editor at Random House publishing through her years as a Princeton University professor. It includes reviews, essays and speeches gathered in one volume to provide a rich resource for reading and study as she reflects on family, literature and the world at large.
