Book Description
This phenomenally successful book, that has sold nearly a half a million copies since its original publication in 1983, is Gloria Steinem's most diverse and timeless collection of essays.
Customer Reviews:
No kidding........2007-08-15
I only bothered to read the infamous "Undercover as a Playboy Bunny" essay. After I'd heard so much about it, I expected a really shocking and wild story, but it was really pretty boring; all a Playboy Bunny is, is a waitress in a revealing outfit. There was no pressure on the Bunnies to hook up with customers, though there was tacit approval if they did so. If anything, the essay is more an exposé on how difficult it is to be a waitress than on the scandalous doings at Chez Hefner.
A great deal of space is devoted to her supervisor's mistaken impression that Miss Steinem played the piano. Instead of just assuming the supervisor had confused her with someone else, perhaps someone the supervisor had talked to the same day or who physically resembled Miss Steinem, Miss Steinem jumped to the rather odd conclusion that there was another person with the same name working there who did play the piano. Apparently believing this was of some importance, she later asked the supervisor about this piano player with the same name as her, and when the supervisor replied with a blank look, instead of simply concluding that said supervisor was prone to absent-minded mistakes, Miss Steinem instead decided with elation that her true identity was safe! Why, if they'd realized she was a feminist journalist, they might have... um, fired her from a lousy job that she hated and wasn't her real job anyway.
She did make one discovery while she worked there that she apparently considered greatly shocking. Are you sitting down? All right, brace yourselves for her revelation:
*Men are interested in getting laid.*
That's investigative journalism for you!
Gloria Wrote Her Mother's Song To Enable & Encourage Other Daughters To Discover Their Mothers' Songs .......2006-10-11
This review is not a review of the whole book. For focus, it is a review of "Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It)," a memoir essay written by Gloria Steinem about her mother who suffered from serious mental illness throughout Gloria's entire life. But before I focus on that essay, I want to mention that this book also contains an essay "Alice Walker: Do You Know This Woman? She Knows You" written in 1982 before The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.
If you are trying to decide whether you want to buy this book, pick it up in the book store and read Gloria's essay on her mother's detailed history of mental illnesses. "Write what you know" is a common adage, and it rings true here. If you want to understand what energized Gloria to take on a life of advocacy promoting women's rights and equality, reading this essay will help you easily understand how her personal suffering has given her such robust motivation for so many years to combat the forces Gloria believes led her mother to become mentally disabled, to varying degrees, for all of Gloria's life. Gloria starts by inquiring into the mysteries of what led her uncle and mother to shut down and completely change from the outgoing and incredibly bright people they were in their young adulthood (her uncle a brilliant electrical engineer, and her mother a math teacher who once taught college calculus) to meeker and lower functioning older adults. She notes that the family was concerned about her uncle, but not as engaged in trying to remedy her mother's ailments.
Gloria lives with the hindsight that she did not know in her youth how to possibly help her mother better, "Assuming there to be no other alternative, I took her home and never tried again," and "Perhaps the worst thing about suffering is that it finally hardens the hearts of those around it," and "For many years, I was obsessed with the fear that I would end up in a house like that one in Toledo. Now, I'm obsessed instead with the things I could have done for my mother while she was alive, or the things I should have said to her. I still don't understand why so many, many years passed before I saw my mother as a person, and before I understood that many of the forces in her life were patterns women share." Gloria spent many years growing up with only herself and her mother in the home while her mother suffered from agoraphobia (primarily suffered by women), terrors, delusions and many other cognitive deficiencies. Her mother suffered from depression and other mental roadblocks, spent time in sanatoriums, was drug dependent, and could not work outside the home.
Please, please read it if you or any woman you care about has either suffered from mental illness, or if they "became a different person" at some point in their life. I have a female relative that all my uncles could not understand why she "changed so drastically" and fell into never ending depression, drug dependency and general dysfunction. But I understand many of the likely reasons for those declines, declines that our extended familial environment contributed to more than most of my family ever realized or were willing to acknowledge.
Gloria's mother, Ruth, sold her only home so Gloria could go to college. She encouraged both Gloria and her sister to leave home for "four years of independence she herself had never had." Before certain events happened to Ruth, Ruth was one of the first female journalists and went to dances when her religion and community told her the music was sinful. Why does Gloria share this private and painful family history? I believe she wants to help teach other women how to tell their own stories. Each woman is best at telling her own story. But when they cannot or do not sing their own song, sometimes others sing it for them, to share their beauty. Gloria concludes with, "At least we're now asking questions about all the Ruths in all our family mysteries. If her song inspires that, I think she would be the first to say: It was worth the singing."
A beautiful coincidence: my mother's mother was a musician named Ruth.
Go Gloria!!.......2006-05-08
This courageous book should have all those mean-spirited feminism bashers running for the hills. Some popular accusations against feminism is that the movement has created a so-called backlash against men. If this imaginary backlash exists, however, I have yet to see any examples of it. The backlash against women and feminism (led by a minority of cowardly, insecure men and women who hate their own sex) is what Steinem details in in her powerful memoir/essay collection. She takes her readers back to a time when sexism against women was a fact of life and full work still only got them half pay.
Honestly and empathetically, Ms. Steinem takes us through her own evolution--from a journalist proud to "write like a man" and ashamed of covering "womens' issues"--to a passionate activist, willing to take on every issue. If you've ever wondered why all the ranting, women-hating anti-feminists STILL abhor Gloria with such irrational fervor, read this book. She presents each of her points in a perfectly calm and reasonable way. Never is there an attempt to force her readers to agree. Gloria Steinem, does not blame anything on men or make any affront on their dignity. She simply questions, unobtrusively, why certain inequalities still exist.
If you're looking a feminist's account of "life in the trenches," you won't be disapointed with Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Gloria is an inspiration for everyone to reach their full potential.
good book.......2004-09-02
Gloria is a witty woman who tells it like it is. Her adventures are funny and thought-provoking. I particularly enjoyed the story in which she was a Playboy bunny back when there were PLayboy clubs with bunny waitresses and coatgirls. She encourages women to step outside the box and think for themselves.
Thank god for Gloria........2004-03-22
There was often grumbling in certain circles that Gloria Steinem had so much attention paid to her because she was pretty. If that was the only factor, Steinem's popularity would have waned, not because she lost her looks (she never did) but because of the fickleness of the media and the "next pretty face." Steinem is smart, brave, funny and a damn good writer. "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions", her 1983 book of collected essays proves it in spades.
In early 1993, I had the privilege of seeing Gloria Steinem speak at Mount Holyoke College. I had to take the bus from UMASS to get there, and the place was packed. They closed the doors at one point saying it was too full, but they ended up letting most people in. When Ms. Steinem took the stage, she urged all those who were standing in the back to come up and join her onstage so that they could sit. This is the kindness and warmth that Steinem raidates. Many people in the audience were clutching copies of her books for her to sign. As this was the era of "Revolution from Within," that book was everywhere. But I also saw many copies of "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions" as well. By then the book was 10 years old, but I can understand why people held onto it. This is a great book of essays written over the years. The book touches upon topics such as abortion rights, Jackie Onassis, Alice Walker, Steinem's college reunion, Steinem's own relationship with her mother and the famous expose of Steinem's undercover work at the Playboy Club in the early 60's. Having a journalism background, Steinem's prose is clear and concise. This is no rhetoric-filled theory-based polemic, but a balanced and fair look at the world from the perspective of an extraordinary woman. Also included in this collection is the wonderfully wry, "If Men Could Menstruate." The second edition of this book has some updated comments from Steinem that reflect on the essays more than a decade after the book was published.
For all those who condemn feminism yet really know nothing about it, read this book. For those who are looking for a book of unique, well-written and enlightening essays, read this book. For those of us who discovered this book long ago and have fond memories, read it again.
Book Description
The waterway that runs between Albany and Canada contains the richest cluster of 18th-century military sites in the US. Fort William Henry and Fort Ticonderoga experienced fierce conflict during the French and Indian War, and the Saratoga Battlefield is forever linked to the American Revolution. While military historians have told and retold stories of the area's battles and generals, archeologist David Starbuck turns to the daily lives of soldiers, officers, and camp followers by examining the many objects and artifacts they left behind.
Enhanced by 150 photographs and drawings, Starbuck's interpretation of the journals, huts, pottery, ammunition, and other artifacts found at encampments and forts in the Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Hudson River area vividly re-creates the difficulties of soldiering. Because Starbuck and his crews unearthed many of these discoveries, his excitement drives the narrative and enhances an understanding of how colonial American battles were fought.
Customer Reviews:
Worthwhile survey of Colonial Military sites.......1999-10-06
Very good illustrated survey of Colonial Military sites in in the Lake George, Champlain area. Nicely illustrated with a brief history of each site. A true bargain at the price!!!! The only flaw I found was the author repeats the old misinformation regarding the excavation of the HMS Invincible site in England. This warship sunk in the 1750s which was excavated along with late 18th and 19th Century military buttons that washed into the wreck afterwards leading Archeologists to believe British military buttons were regimentally marked in the 1750s. It shows how Archeology can sometimes provide misleading history when the excavators have little knowledge of material culture.
The Type of Work History Needs More of........1999-05-24
The Great Warpath is a comprehensive integration of archaeology and history, the type of book history needs more of to make past subject matter more tangible and believable. Ironically, there are surprisingly few works which supplement history with archaeology or vice-versa. With The Great Warpath Starbuck fills the vacancy as he carefully balances the two fields and raises archaeology to a new level of importance. Specifically, the book deals with British Military history in the late 18th century as Starbuck interprets it from his many years as an archaeologist. All the major sights of the French and Indian War in New York State are covered, as well as a few sights from the American Revolution. The Great Warpath refers to the Hudson River, the main corridor in New York State, along which military engagements of the French and Indian War, and the American Revolution occured. Undoubtedly, The Great Warpath has something to offer every military historian who is not satisfied solely with the limits of written history.
Book Description
In the months following its initial release, Guantánamo: What the World Should Know has proved to be a disturbingly accurate account of the Bush administration's tangle with civil liberties and torture. Written by Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights President and co-consul on the case of Rasul v. Bush)and Ellen Ray (Institute for Media Analysis President), Guantanamo is the most authoritative documentation to date on President Bush's moves toward a network of detention centers--a system without accountability, which flouts U.S. and international law.
With a resource section that includes the Gonzales memo to President Bush and excerpts from the Geneva Conventions, Guantanamo provides strong evidence of Ratner explains how Gonzales and the Bush Administration are acting to radically alter America's historic commitment to civil and human rights, and why all Americans should resist what is being done in our name.
Gathered together for the first time, Guantánamo: What the World Should Know includes the governmental memorandum that led to the conditions at the Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and beyond.
Ratner and Ray give the definitive account of what led to the current conditions at Guantánamo and the importance of continuing to fight against the violations of U.S. and international law undertaken by the United States since 9-11. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with the rule of law, liberty, democracy--and the right to dissent.
Customer Reviews:
Guantanamo.......2007-05-31
Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights is interviewed in this fascinating, authoritative, and riveting book. This is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about Guantanamo, past and present. Anyone who cares about human rights will find this short but provoking book a fascinating read.
Must Read.......2007-05-27
With the exception of those on the payroll of the United States Government, Michael Ratner (with staff he directs at the Center for Constitutional Rights and volunteer lawyers he assembled) knows more about Guantánamo than anyone.
The book is a quick read at 93 pages of text.
For those who have grown up believing that the rule of law is central to our democracy, it is a chilling read.
Published in mid-2004 it reviews a broad array of the issues which had arisen as of that time and which continue to inform the realities on the ground at Gitmo today. It provides a careful analysis of the ways in which "rule by executive fiat" deviated from the U.S. Constitution, the entirety of the Anglo-American legal tradition, the Geneva Conventions, and international law.
He discusses how a great percentage of persons were selected to be prisoners at Guantánamo, a great many by bounty hunters capturing persons far from any battlefield, the bounties paid for by U.S. tax dollars. He discusses extraordinary rendition of prisoners rendered to countries known to torture, the "outsourcing" of torture.
He recounts the abuse and torture suffered meted out to those interrogated at Guantánamo and links the methods used there to those later made infamous by the exposé of interrogations at Abu Ghraib.
The more serious reader will appreciate the 66-pages of primary source documents collected in the appendix covering a broad range of topics from the original lease of Guantánamo from the Cuba to relevant parts of Geneva Conventions to a series of memoranda issued by various departments of the executive branch which framed some of the major issues that the detentions at Guantánamo present for our country.
For anyone concerned about the state of our democracy, this is an important book.
highly relevant, well written.......2006-06-17
You need to read this book. Since the suicides of last week, the US government has sealed off Gtmo from the world - no lawyers, no press. It is vitally important that we understand what is going on there and close Gtmo down. Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray have collaborated to produce a highly readable "primer" on this disgraceful period in US history. I used this book in my human rights courses.
Susan Gzesh, Director, Human Rights Program, the University of Chicago
Good account of the USA's concentration camp at Guantanamo.......2004-12-16
This book consists of interviews of Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, by writer Ellen Ray, plus relevant UN and other documents. Ratner was co-counsel in Rasul v Bush, which the New York Times called "the most important civil rights case in half a century" because on 28 June 2004 the Supreme Court ruled against President Bush that the US military could not hold what it called `enemy combatants' indefinitely, without charge and without access to legal representation. The Court ruled that the prisoners had the right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts.
The Bush government then set up `combatant status review tribunals', supposedly to decide whether the detainees had been correctly designated as enemy combatants and therefore were being rightfully detained according to the laws of combat. However, the administration breached the Supreme Court's ruling that the prisoners had the right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts, since all the tribunals' members are military officers.
Guantanamo is `an interrogation camp', which is flatly illegal, under US and international law. It harks back to Stuart Britain's offshore penal colonies which were beyond the reach of law, forms of executive imprisonment which the 1679 Habeas Corpus Act made illegal. The US detention centres in Iraq, Afghanistan and Diego Garcia and on board US aircraft carriers are modern Devil's Islands.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has reported that US forces had inflicted on the 550 prisoners illegally held at Guantanamo Bay psychological and physical coercion that was `tantamount to torture'. It said, "the construction of such a system, whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence, cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture." At least three children, between 11 and 13, were held at Guantanamo; some are still there today.
The British state is guilty of collaboration and connivance with these illegal US state actions. British courts, like US courts, are using as evidence statements made under duress and torture in these US-run camps, thereby condoning the use of torture.
The True Story Behind an American Gulag .......2004-08-14
This book provides a really concise, clear and powerful explanation of the American interrogation camp at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. The author who represents some of the detainees and has interviewed them paints a vivid picture of their hideous treamtment. He demonstrates that the camp is not only outside the law, but a threat to the safety of us all. If you want to know why Guantanamo has become iconic in the Muslism world for everything wrong with the US, read this book.
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Political Geography, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Description:
Customer Reviews:
Extremely helpful.......2002-07-25
While trying to identify some slides that I shot during June of some wildflowers in Colorado, I tried to use Peterson's Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. I had a very difficult time trying to identify anything. I picked up Guennel's guide (for both prairie and mountain) and within minutes I had EVERY wildflower slide identified. I'd like to see more information about each plant, such as when it indicates 'poisonous' for the plant, is it for the whole plant, root, petals, ??? But the ease in identification more than makes up for the lack of additional info. I definately recommend this book.
Excellent - just like it's companion book.......2000-03-13
See review for Guide to Colorado Wildflowers: Mountains for this review. Same author and same style applies to this one. Excellent resource with ease of use.
I'm Not Wearing Any Pants!.......2000-03-08
Nice guide, grouping by color helpful for identification. Could use more detailed anatomical descriptions and photos are a bit small.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent hiking and wildflower resource.......2000-10-28
As a botanist who loves hiking and flowers, I was thrilled to get the chance to "field test" this wonderful guide to Colorado's high mountains. It is organized by elevation so you can follow spring up higher as summer progresses. It clearly states the hike length, the terrain, the location, gives directions AND best of all - lists what flowers you will see! I found this book to be an extraordinary guide to the region and it helped me tailor my vacation and plan my hikes. The photos of the mountain scenery were very good and the close ups of the flowers were terrific. I think I actually bumped into the author on a hike (I recognized her from the photo in the back!). Terrific book!
Customer Reviews:
Best alpine flower guide.......2000-10-24
I grew up and live in the summer in a Colorado ghost town at 9,000 ft. altitude surrounded by 13,000 ft. mountains. This is the best guide for Colorado alpine flowers I have ever seen. Great illustrations, fine explanatory notes - a must have for alpine flower afficianados.
Best one I've seen!.......2000-06-02
I go to Colorado backpacking, rafting and climbing every summer and of all the field guides I have ever had, this one is the best! It has very easy to use color format so you can find any flower in a matter of seconds. KEEP IT HANDY!
Good one!.......2000-03-13
This book is just what I was looking for a reference book in the field and home. It has both photos and drawings of each plant. One plant per page and the pages are nicely grouped by flower color which is visible on the page edges as well. The indexes, as usual in nature books of this type, have both common name and Latin name of each plant. Included are black and white diagrams of leave types and flower head patterns with glossary. Each item listed has a synopsis of flowers, leaves, what"~ kind of immediate environment it grows in, "Life Zone(s)" i.e. foothills, alpine, etc., and flowering time.
Not bad!.......2000-03-08
Nice guide, grouping by color helpful for identification. Could use more detailed anatomical descriptions and photos are a bit small.
Books:
- Pasquale's Nose: Idle Days in an Italian Town
- Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown
- Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend
- Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin
- Shot in the Heart
- Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
- Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry
- The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal
- The Basketball Diaries
- The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years
- History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- Darkness, Take My Hand
- Figure of Hate
- Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century
- Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry III, 13-Volume Set, Volume 1-13: From Fundamentals to Applica
- Ike, 1890-1990: A Pictorial History
- The Federal Art Project in Illinois: 1935-1943
- Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence
- Rock Garden Plants of North America: An Anthology from the Bulletin of the North American Rock Garde
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem
MOVING BEYOND WORDS : AGE, RAGE, SEX, POWER, MONEY, MUSCLES: BREAKING THE BOUNDRIES OF GENDER
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
The Feminine Mystique
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
![Book review: Guantanamo: what the world should know [A book review from: Political Geography]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21C4XBYKGKL.jpg)
