BORN FOR LIBERTY: A History of Women in America

by Sara M. Evans ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 1989

Feminist historian Evans (Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left; Free Spaces: The Sources of Democratic Change in America, with Harry C. Boyte) offers a dry, often too general interpretation of the civic experience of American women, focusing on the tension between the ""male"" public sphere of politics and ""female"" private realm of domesticity. From colonial days to the present, ""American women have continually challenged and redefined the boundaries of public and private life""--in consumer boycotts against British interests, through voluntary organizations providing the sort of social services that would eventually be recognized as the responsibility of the state. Women demanded education (so they would be competent to prepare their sons for citizenship); learned political skills in organizations like the WCTU (which crusaded against booze to protect family life); joined in church groups that provided the grass-roots organization for the Civil Rights movement. PTA networks facilitated the organization of women's peace groups. According to Evans, the white middle-class model of domestic womanhood was harmful to other groups of women (e.g., Native American women, who lost much political power when tribal governments were restructured to accord with white male custom), and the individualist ethic and suburban isolation (as well as, paradoxically, winning the right to vote) helped break up empowering female networks. Some interesting points, but in trying to cover centuries and all socioeconomic groups, Evans' accounts are, by necessity, sketchy and tend to recap material that calls out for more detail.

Pub Date: June 25, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Free Press/Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1989

Categories: NONFICTION