Betty Friedan Books

This is a great read. As a woman who was part of the second wave of the women's movement, it was fun to read and remember the events Bohannon described in her biography of Friedan's life. I wish EVERY young woman would read this book. Today so little is known about the world of women just a very few years ago. It is a great gift for mothers and grandmothers to give the girls in their family!

Here in Minnesota, Southdale Mall is 50--one of the oldest enclosed shopping centers. This was one of the hundreds of modern conveniences that changed our life in the 20th century--this one changed the way we shopped.

Not all conveniences ended up necessarily being "good things." Example is the credit card. Prior to credit cards, if you wanted to buy something but didn't have the full amount, you'd put it on "lay away," paying an amount each payday until it was yours, paid in full. This was "delayed gratification," unheard of today.

After WWII, advertisers learned that "sex sells." In early 1960, "the pill" was introduced for birth control. Its biggest "side effect" was the sexual revolution, fueled by the Hippies and Beat Generation. Until then, there was a stigma for unmarried women to have sex. However, everything changed again when AIDS and genital herpes appeared.

The author has melded together historical facts with letters and telltale photos from people born in the 1930-40-50s about these changes and how it affected them. These letters were so honest and true.

Until 1969, gay people were deemed "mentally ill" by psychiatrists. This was deleted from the list and now it has become an alternative lifestyle."

The Civil Rights movement saw desegregation, increased rights for African Americans--but at the same time, in 1960, we saw the assassination of President Kennedy, his bother bobby and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along with riots at the 1968 Democratic convention. Times were a-changin'!

This book focuses on the 1940-1970 era mostly--and this was quite a time after WWII. The country changed and so did the family values.

The book includes sections like: Lifestyle; Sex and Social Mores; Household/homemakers; That's Entertainment; Fashion; Work; Health, and Science. Then there was technology and transportation and...and...and...

Armchair Interviews says: WOW! The memories this book brings backs are worth hours of talking with those who share these memories. It would be a great gift for Mother's or Father's Day as well.

Written by Marta Hiatt and illustrated with a wealth of vintage black-and-white photographs, Remembrances of The Past: Stories and Photos Recalling Life in the 20th Century is a journey of nostalgia touching upon the highlights of modern American History. Vignettes of what American life used to be like and the events that forever transformed it - from the civil rights boycott that began with Rosa Parks' refusal to be discriminated against, to breakthrough advances in germ warfare, to the revelation that women's orgasms came from clitoral rather than vaginal stimulation, to the inception of the Internet. Organized by theme rather than chronologically, the snippets of revelation about how daily American life used to be are often driven home with firsthand testimonies of ordinary people who lived in those times. A virtual American History museum in book form.

Genre: Non-Fiction/History Americana

Title: Remebrances of Times Past

AUTHOR: Marta Hiatt

Looking to spend a couple of relaxing and entertaining hours strolling down memory lane or visiting a time when your parents or grandparents lived without the benefit of computer, cell phone or television? This is the book for you!!

Author Marta Hiatt revisits a quieter, less complicated time when Mother's were at home baking and cleaning, Father's worked and children played games and used their imaginations. Highways were two lanes, sometimes dirt rather than asphalt and cars were scarce. Board games and cards were the entertainment of the day and children played outdoors where their imaginations bloomed. Not everything was easy in the "Good old days" however, people did much more physical labor and household chores were demanding and challenging. Whether you personally experience the first 50 years of the 20th century or are simply curious, Remembrances of Times Past will enlighten and entertain you. The old photographs add to the charm of the stories and add to the reader's pleasure.

The author has a relaxed, down home writing style that makes readers feel comfortable. She has interviewed and chatted with people who experienced the early century and tastefully relays their stories in this book. She is also the author of Mind Magic, Techniques for Transforming Your Life and Inspirational Quotations from the Concept-Therapy Philosophy.

This reviewer found the book educational and delightful. A great read for a lazy afternoon. Reviewer: Shirley Roe, Allbooks Reviews.



Title: Remembrances of Times Past
Author: Marta Hiatt
Publisher: Northern Star Press
ISBN: 978-0-9620929-3-0
Pages:360
Price: $15.95 July 2006

This is about the 20th century in America, at home, around the radio, in front of the TV, at the dinner table, in the garage, behind the wheel, in the kitchen. It's about what we ate and what we listened to and watched. What we bought, what we wore, how we behaved and what we did for a living. Marta Hiatt does an amazing job of weaving nostalgic black white photos of people, places and things with her own beguiling narrative interspersed with quotes from ordinary people who lived during these times. The result is book that I literally could not put down. In fact I put aside some other books to read it.

Remember doing the dishes with soap that wouldn't make suds in hard water? I do. The grease wouldn't get emulsified. It just got moved around. It took 10-year-old me hours to do the dishes from a big meal. Remember the washboard and the wringer that you were warned about getting your fingers caught in? Remember margarine, white like lard in a clear plastic bag, but with a little red ball that you broke and kneaded into the margarine to make it yellow? Remember corsets and garter belts and stockings that got runs in them? Leopold and Loeb, Al Capone, Patty Hearst, and Charlie Manson? Manual typewriters and the milk man? Or when the iceman did cometh and you put a square sign in the window with a chosen side up showing how much ice you needed? Popeye and spinach? Walking a mile for a Camel, and this ad on page 239: "No curative power is claimed for Philip Morris but--...An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure!...Call for Philip Morris"? The ad is from 1934. It is interesting how the tobacco companies projected their fears and revealed that even then they knew that cigarettes may cause disease.

Hiatt remembers all this and a lot more. You will find yourself turning the pages--which is to be expected since photos of those old ads, movie posters, people in quaint clothing, etc. are just so much fun to see; but what surprised me is just how readable the prose is. Hiatt's direct, unpretentious style and her knack for picking people to quote who are also straightforward make this one irresistible read. If there is any single theme that stands out, it would be the liberation of women, or truthfully, the partial liberation of women that has taken place most profoundly in the twentieth century. Hiatt does an excellent job of chronicling this momentous development and she points to some of the changes it has brought about.

The book is organized into chapters concentrating on various aspects of our lives, beginning with "Lifestyle," followed by "Sex and Social Mores," to "Household," through "That's Entertainment," "Fashion," and "Science and Technology," ending with Chapter Twelve, "A Potpourri of Changes."

Reading this is a bit like seeing the changes that have taken place in our lifetimes as in a newsreel (remember them?) sped up and vivid, perhaps like our lives passing before us... Irresistible book.

Ok: It wasn't so long ago we were watching tv on tiny black and white tubes, drinking ice cream sodas from a fountain and Diet Coke hadn't been invented (so women strapped themselves into girdles to banish the bulge.) The pictures in "Remembrances of Times Past" remind us of how far we've come in a century. Since my mom dates from the 20's and I from the 50's, we can together pore over this book and think: when Mom was a kid there was barely refrigeration! When I was a kid, the tv was a novelty and the computer in high school was a terminal from Ford Motor Company and you inserted a punched paper tape to run a single kilobyte program. Wow. It's fun to reminisce. Delightful.

Not only is the book well written and thoroughly researched but the content is superb. Ms. Friedan hits every major issue related to aging in a personal and exploratory style. I love her voice and tone throughout. Don't pass this one up!

Betty Friedan's THE FOUNTAIN OF AGE is an excellent overview of how America views older people. She eschews all forms of discrimination from warehousing the elderly in nursing homes, separating older people from society in the retirement communities, and the negative attitudes of the medical profession toward this population. Older people are not decrepit poor things. Older people have the capacity to keep learning and growing. Just as she revolutionized women's roles in THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, Ms. Friedan does the same for THE AGE MYSTIQUE. The book is beautifully written and meticulously researched. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

The fact that there is only 1 customer review on this tome of a book does not diminish its importance. It simply validates what the author is saying about people denying they're getting older. My zen book comforts me: For the ignorant, old age is winter; For the learned, it is harvest. Since this book was published Friedan has written yet another book, an autobiography. I am impressed with her vigor and intelligence.

Betty Friedan wrote The Fountain of Age as a journey to redefine age, and to demystify the age mystique. Each chapter stands alone as an essay, exploring the many tribulations of old age. She allows us to follow her on this journey, which she starts at the age of 60 with her own fears and denial of aging, and ends with the celebration of age.

One of the main themes that run through this book is that age is perceived only as a decline or deterioration from youth. This assumption has become so pervasive throughout the professional community and society, that Friedan finds older people believing it to be true, having all bought into the decline model of aging. She writes each chapter challenging this assumption, pointing out the injustice along with the solution, usually through social-political change. This is reflected in such chapters as `Denial and the "problem" of age', `The Retirement Paradox', and `A Paradigm Shift from "Cure"'.

In the `Denial and "Problem" of Age', one of the things Friedan finds is that media consistently leaves out any appearance of older individuals on television and in advertisements saying "The blackout of images of women and men visibly over sixty-five, engaged in any vital or productive adult activity, and their replacement by the "problem" of age, is our society's very definition of age." She goes on to say, "Clearly the image of age has become so terrifying to Americans that they do not want to see any reminder of their own aging." She realizes the image of age was viewed as one of decline and deterioration, a mystique, not of desirability, but of trepidation. Growing old has almost become unspeakable, which stems from our obsession with youth.

Friedan takes on the ageist ideology of corporate America in the chapter `The Retirement Paradox', saying at sixty-five or even before, older workers are forced into retirement, If not by law, then by social expectation, when many still want to work, and still have one-third of their lives still to live and be productive. Declaring this a great injustice to older workers, Friedan believes we don't have to continue to be structured in terms of lifespan of the past, suggesting that companies who are smart enough to adjust to the increasing population of older workers will be able to harvest enormous talent.

In `A Paradigm Shift from "Cure"', Friedan believes the assumption of age being likened to sickness or debility keeps the medical community and even the elderly themselves from dealing with the symptoms of legitimate illnesses. The role of functional assessment is important in treating the elderly, saying, "A new version of the old-fashioned family doctor, trained to treat the whole person, is what is needed." She goes on to say "Doctors and nurses must go beyond medicine's two traditional goals: " to cure disease and to prevent disease." Their goal now has to be to preserve and improve the quality of life for the older person." For Friedan, the paradigm shift is one from the passive medical model of care of the elderly to actually controlling their own age.

Friedan undertakes issues that haven't truly been addressed before, so as a gerontologist this book is important to me. She opens our eyes to the social implications the decline model holds for our elderly, and the paradigm shift that needs to take place if we are going to look at the abilities and qualities that may develop or emerge in men and women in later life, and contemplate new possibilities for their use.

Going beyond, or the transcendence of age is how Friedan concludes her journey. Given the new possibilities old age holds, she believes the elderly have to be pioneers of a new kind of age. She found these people all across the country, applauding old age instead of dreading it. She sees old age as an opportunity for a new beginning, a new horizon, to do the things you never had the chance to do before. These people were continuing to evolve and grow into their new age. Those who originally were searching for the fountain of youth, found the fountain of age instead.

I'm only forty and was drawn to this book because of what Betty Friedan has created for women in this century. I was delightfully surprised to find a book about "aging" was engaging for me. Her wonderful insights and perspectives have forever changed my outlook on getting older, and the examples and studies she cites have challenged not only my stereotypes, but allows me to challenge those of friends, families and doctors! This is a must read, REGARDLESS of your age! Perhaps even, the younger you are (to an extent!), the more profound these realities will be. I really enjoyed the audio book, which she reads herself, and plan to purchase the hard copy to have on hand to read again.

This is a courageous book written by a courageous woman. The story is of a life that continues to endure despite many hardships. If Betty Friedan had been less bright, one wonders if her life would have been easier. My personal favorite part in the book is that of her childhood. One can see her development as a feminist. When one is involved in raising daughters, I feel there is alot to learn in this book. As an aunt with four young nieces, I see the great responsibility one has in raising women to become leaders in the world today. That is why I recommend this book for library use.

As a biography, "Life so Far" is a fast paced account of the full life of a exceedingly accomplished woman. It is full of successes, failures, and SECRETS that others who are so accomplished would not tell.

But, it is much more than a bigraphy.

It provides a first rate education on the successful orchestration, and challenges, that would apply to development of most any political/ social movement. This insite, so skillfully revealed, is gained through fast pace read of the book, for the simple reason that you cannot put it down.

More specific, and equally enligtening the book provides a comprehensive overview of the womens social/political movement toward equality as told through the actions Betty Friedan's remarkable life. The book accounts the tremendous progress, but also reminds us to continue to question social/political order because the job is not complete.

One of the most powerful and interesting books I have read -- I have just logged on to Amazon to order 3 more copies of the book for friends -- spread the word, this is definately a 5-star!

Betty Freidan comes through clearly in her book---superbright, sensitive, vital, a woman who has taken great pleasure in men, children, writing, and the women's movement she sparked in l963 with the publication of "The Feminist Mystique." She's good company, as frank about her foibles as she is about her gifts and accomplishments. Unlike the extremists who entered the women's movement after her, she is balanced and moderate. "I've always thought of women's liberation as men's liberation as well." She says about what she might want on her gravestone, "She helped make a world where women feel good about being women and free to really love men." A recurring motif in her memoir is what she calls her "Jewish existential conscience", a feeling that she has to use her life to make the world better. (The "Christian correlation" might be, Jesus' parable of the use of talents.) She has indeed been a friend to women----and to men--everywhere.

A must read for those of us who were lucky enough to come of age in the 60s. Friedan left me with a profound sense of gratitude. Because of NOW's vigilance, I had the "right" to carry my daughter to term without being fired from my job as a high school teacher in 1974 . Because of the movement's persistance, I had the "right" to seek and obtain a job as a Superintendent of Schools in a market that was 90 percent dominated by men. Friedan's words inspire me to do more to improve conditions for children and families.

Friedan might have been the first president of NOW, but she never fully grasped that sisterhood actually meant that women had to work together with each other and sometimes she would not be in the limelight.

Although I am very sorry to hear she was beaten by her husband all of these years and went through a messy divorce, this does not excuse her bizzare and obsessive behavior towards Gloria Steinem and other feminists. THe fact that Friedan maintains that Steinem "just wanted to disappear me" suggests just how narrow minded and self centered Friedan really is.

This book might be good for entertainment or a study of people with mental problems, but by no means should it be mistaken for a feminist tome or action plan. The eloquent research of the feminine mystique has been replaced with a heaping pile of paranoid garbage.

Founding mother of the Women's Liberation Movement, Betty Friedan, author of the Feminine Mystique, was a long-time CPUSA apparatchik and never the typical suburban bourgeois housewife she posed as.

In this very readable book, Daniel Horowitz examines Betty Friedan's political and intellectual origins and finds good reason to question the widely held understanding that The Feminine Mystique was written out of the perspective and consciousness of a typical surburban housewife.

Professor Horowitz explores the life and thought of the young Bettye Goldstein as an undergraduate at Smith, and then as a labor journalist in the early and mid 1940's, and reveals her origins as a committed social critic and advocate with labor-left origins.

Professor Horowitz treats his subject gently and with respect. Betty Friedan disagrees with Horowitz's analysis, and this tension adds to the fun.

In a clear-eyed yet obviously compassionate examination of Betty Friedan, the "mother" of modern American feminism,Horowitz reveals that his subject was far more worldly and politically concious than she indicated in her 1963 ground breaker.

Although some of today's generation-- whether feminists or not--may scratch heads and wonder why an intellegent articulate woman would intentionally disguise so much of her being while urging other women not to do the same, Friedan had no choice. In a nation somewhat tempered by fresh reccollection of the horrors of McCarthyism, red-baiting and subsequent discreditation of those tarred with the label still ran rampant.

Understanding that her grim findings would never receive the light of day in a culture still gushy-eyed over the assumption that every housewife was automatically happy or that option was the only choice for women, she had to employ crafty PR strategies to make the book appealing for original publication and promotion. Her "new idenity" made her a far more appealing media source than a "radical labor activist" since it allowed her to avoid being blamed for her own stigmatization as one of those supposedly unnatural career women whose unhappiness must be self-inflicted.

As a member of third-wave feminism, I profess to having little initial interest in Friedan or her methodology. Because I lived in a world where with comparatively many more choices/rights, was aware of her own internal predjuduces towards intra-feminist movement diversity and antagonism towards Gloria Steinem, I usually wrote off Friedan as an anachronism who although important, was somebody I could not relate to directly. Since I was not married and was childless, I could not see myself in the pages.

After this book, I not only can see why she repackaged herself, but realized that I would do exactly the same thing in her position. I still disagree with Friedan on her minimialization of other feminist leaders, but have a new appreciation of her work and relevance.

Betty Friedan was a pivotal figure in the "second wave" women's movement of the 1960s and 70s. The publication of her book, _The Feminine Mystique_ in 1963 catapulted her into international celebrity. The book was a catalyst of change. Fueled by an economic boom in which a single wage-earner could provide a satisfactory standard of living for an entire family, post World War II women had been pressured to abandon the workplace in order to bury their identities in housekeeping and motherhood.

Many middle class women felt stifled by the false feminine ideals and enforced domesticity of this era, and it was their frustration and anger to which Friedan's writing resonated. She was an educated Jewish woman with three children, a journalist, who had lived the suburban lifestyle, but who was propelled by her sense of injustice to speak to the larger world.

_It Changed My Life_ is a compilation of old and new writings, interviews, magazine articles, and recollections ten years after Friedan and a handful of other women founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in a Washington hotel room. This book was published in 1976, at a time when the original energy of the "second wave" women's movement had been submerged in pro-lesbian, anti-family rhetoric, and the futile struggle to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) had many people questioning whether feminism was dead.

Her exceptional and powerful writings prove Friedan to be an outspoken radical, a true leader of our times. She is a spokeswoman for the heterosexual woman who loves her children, but who also wants to be valued by the human race. Friedan spoke out against social and economic powerlessness for women, as well as false standards of "machismo" for men. Her goal was cooperation, not separatism.

For instance, here is Friedan's interesting definition of feminism:

"My definition of feminism is simply that women are people, in the fullest sense of the word, who must be free to move in society with all the privileges and opportunities and responsibilities that are their human and American right. This does not mean class warfare against men, nor does it mean the elimination of children, which denies our human future.

"It seems to me that _all_ the women's movement ever was, or needs to be, is a stage in the whole human rights movement - bringing another group, a majority this time, into the mainstream of human society, with all the perils and promises and human risks this involves. No more, no less. " (p. 317, paperback)

Some of the most compelling writing in this book comes from a column originally published in _McCall's_ magazine between 1970-73. "Betty Friedan's Notebook" is a readable, page-turning narrative of Friedan's travels around the globe to spread the world of the women's movement. She was a busy speaker, much in demand, a dynamic personality in the lecture hall. The accounts of the public's response to her message in places like Brazil and Italy is absolutely absorbing. And we get to see the "at home" side of Betty as well, as she integrates her experiences as a woman and mother into her public vision for change.

In conclusion, _It Changed My Life_ is an optimistic collection of journalistic writings calling for real dialogue between the sexes. Betty Friedan is a pivotal figure in the history of the Women's Movement in America, and her exceptional ideas merit consideration by anyone interested in women's issues. This book is a *must read.*

Betty Friedan is known for her work in feminism, this book is well written. All modern women should read this book for a point of reference. Good read, a good reference book to own.

This book required no wait-time. Great condition, just as I expected. No problems whatsoever!

I read this book in high school, and was very happy to read it again in my 40s. In each instance, the urgency, and the modern-day applications of this work hit me in the face: the American woman exists in a world with extraordinary pressures. The pressure to get married; the pressure to let a man support you; the pressure to fully believe that unless you live your life through your family and solely through your family that you are somehow a failure.

Some parts of this book feel dated--and certainly the author is concentrating on but a section society: white, college educated, and at the least middle class.

However, look at how our teenager daughters and nieces are being sexualized today--this is only slightly different from the 1950s, where a young girl's sexuality was her primary trading commodity. Look at how the consumer culture continues to influence us. And look at how intelligent women (college educated or not, because there are plenty of smart women who didn't go to college) are still pressured to stay at home. The current cult of the "perfect parent" and "helicopter mother" still stems from the insidious understanding that women must give all to creating a perfect family.

THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE is thought-provoking and still more than a bit scarey. Can anyone imagine a time where your college major was, pretty much, a course in ironing?

If you want to learn more read PINK THINK--more lighthearted but as thought provoking.

Let me start off by saying that this book got an additional star from me because I completely agree with the point of this book: That if woman doesn't stand up and provide themselves with an identity and use themselves to their whole potential, they will become incomplete and nothing. This is mainly summed up in the chapter: A New Life Plan for Women. I recommend this book simply on this chapter. It is inspiring, positive, and relevant for women to read, even to this day. However, the rest of this book was hard for me to get through. In reference to the title of my review, I am young and perhaps I can't relate to some of the issues Ms. Friedan has brought up because of the women's movement of the '60's and '70's which has provided me with more opportunity, as a woman, to make life and career choices for myself without pressure or guilt. I am glad that I don't have the restrictions that women had back then and I am so grateful that there were women out there that knew our potential and were not willing to compromise it. But asides from possibly not liking the material because I found it hard to relate to, I did find that Ms.Friedan used alot of subject matter that is at best, subjective (for instance, the chapter Mistaken Choice was absurdly biased-- she makes references that the men in the military that were rejected for service due to mental issues usually came from homes that had doting overly loving mothers, that juvenile deliquency was non-existent in the homes of mothers who worked, that Russian children were more stable and adjusted than American children because their mothers worked or had interests outside the home etc, and that she even goes to imply that over loving a child is more traumatic for the child than raising them in a household where whippings and beatings are frequent possibilties.) There are other scattered observations that she made that I found hard to swallow as well, such as part of the chapter The Sexual Sell which implies that business caters to the homemakers because they do all the buying, and that mothers with careers or serious interests outside the home do not have the time to take to buy from business. I find it hard to believe that big business couldn't capitalize on the working mom. I can't believe that a working mom wouldn't be interested in an appliance that could cut her time to get chores done back then as well as today. That part of the chapter made no sense to me. Basically, I felt that Ms. Friedan used a lot of subjective facts, scare tactics (mother and housewife bashing), and propaganda that was unnecessary, at best, to get to her more inspiring point. I felt that all that "material" detracted from the point of the book, but I am glad I made it all the way through to get to the "New Plan." That's where the "heart of the artichoke" lies. But to those of you who feel that the point of the book is, "women who are unhappy with their lives are this way because they don't have a job" are missing the point. While although it is evident that she found her calling through her career and those around her (upper middle class women with privilege) did the same, her point is for women to challenge themselves and demand more than what is offered. Don't settle for less.

All right.

There seems to be some confusion as to what Ms. Friedan's opinion on Freud was.

To clarify, she WAS NOT A FREUD SUPPORTER!!!

In fact, Freudian thought is entirely contrary to feminist thought.

If you don't believe me, either buy the book or check it out from your local library and see Chapter 5: The Sexual Solipsism of Sigmund Freud.

The following is taken from the first paragraph from that chapter:

"The old prejudices--women are animals, less than human, unable to think like men, born merely to breed and serve men--were not so easily dispelled by the crusading feminists, by science and education, and by the democratic spirit after all. They merely reappeared in the forties, in Freudian disguise. The feminine mystique derived its power from Freudian thought; for it was an idea born of Freud, which led women, and those who studied them, to misinterpret their mothers' frustrations, and their fathers' and brothers' and husbands' resentments and inadequacies, and their own emotions and possible choices in life. It is a Freudian idea, hardened into apparent fact, that has trapped so many American women today."

(Including this paragraph is in no way intended to substitute for reading the entire book. Please buy the book and read it to benefit the most fully from it.)

And for your own edification, Betty Friedan defined the "feminine mystique" as "the problem that has no name"--i.e. what women think when they realize that being a housewife (or what we call today a stay-at-home mom) is not enough for them. That they want more--that they need more. That they need to be given all the same opportunities to develop their personhoods as men have to develop theirs.

In short, the book The Feminine Mystique is about when we, women, realize that we are people too.

The book is about this and nothing more.

And people who say otherwise either haven't read the book or just don't believe that we are people. Maybe they believe that we're just half-people--wombs with brains that are dumber than men's attached to them. Although how they could believe such a thing and actually sleep at night, I do not know.

This is a disappointing biography of the Second Wave feminist pioneer, Betty Friedan. Its author spends so much time making insulting and belittling remarks about Friedan's behavior, clothing, relationships, lifestyle, etc., that the reader begins to wonder if it is a deliberate and underhanded attempt to discredit the feminist leader. The biographer apparently spent a great deal of time interviewing all of Friedan's past acquaintances, trying to cull out unpleasantries and dirty laundry. Everything negative that happens in Friedan's lifetime is blamed on personal shortcomings of Friedan. This is not a credible biography. Instead, I would suggest reading Friedan's own recent memoir of her life, _Life So Far_. Anyone who has read any of Friedan's books (_Feminine Mystique_, _It Changed My Life_, _Fountain of Age_) and been impressed with this great woman's strong voice for women's rights, and her extraordinarily powerful messages, will have difficulty with the negativity that mars this second rate book. I really don't understand why a biographer with so little empathy for her subject spent the time to write this book. Friedan herself is a marvelous writer, and she is misrepresented and underrated here.

Twenty-eight years ago, the work of Betty Friedan changed forever, my view of my role as a woman in society. Reading Hennessee's well-researched and balanced account of Betty's life and times, allowed me to reconnect with a special time and era to all women (at least white, middle class women!) It is fascinating to know Betty with all her contradictions exposed; her feelings of being marginalized and excluded, her need for recognition and acknowledgement ( especially from men), and inability to connect with her own spirituality and aging. Equally amazing is the fact that Betty's Feminine Mystique took feminism mainstream, but failed to acknowledge patriarchy as the root cause of the unspoken dissatisfaction and yearning of American women. Also of interest are accounts of "behind the scenes" maneuvers at key events in the Feminist Movement, highlighing the rivalry between Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and others. One can only hope that both women and men are learning new ways of being and can move to behaviors embracing a partnership model rather than a dominator model as we approach the new millenium.