Part-fable, part-manifesto, the book takes place in Ramrod, an empire in decline, and introduces us to the communities of the faggots, the women, the queens, the queer men, and the women who love women who are surviving the ways and world of men. Cherished by many over the four decades since its publication, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions offers a trenchant critique of capitalism, assimilation, and patriarchy that is deeply relevant today.

    An essential piece of feminist theory and Black/womanist feminism.

    Blending firsthand accounts with astute political analysis, Domitila describes the hardships endured by Bolivia's vast working class and her own efforts at organizing women in the mining community. The result is a gripping narrative of class struggle and repression, an important social document that illuminates the reality of capitalist exploitation in 1970s Bolivia. Domitila Barrios de Chungara was born in 1937 in the Siglo XX mining town in Bolivia. She became politically active in the 1960s and, in 1975, participated in the UN International Women's Year Tribunal in Mexico. In 2005 she was nominated alongside 999 other "Peace Women" for a collective Nobel Peace Prize.

    

    In eleven acute and widely ranging essays, Irigaray reconsiders the question of female sexuality in a variety of contexts that are relevant to current discussion of feminist theory and practice. Among the topics she treats are the implications of the thought of Freud and Lacan for understanding womanhood and articulating feminine discourse; classic views on the significance of the difference between male and female sex organs; and the experience of erotic pleasure in men and women. She also takes up explicitly the question of economic exploitation of women; in an astute reading of Marx she shows that the subjection of woman has been institutionalized by her reduction to an object of economic exchange. Throughout Irigaray seeks to dispute and displace male-centered structures of language and thought through a challenging writing practice that takes a first step toward a woman's discourse, a discourse that would put an end to Western culture's enduring phallocentrism. Makin more direct and accessible the subversive challenge of Speculum of the Other Woman, this volume--skillfully translated by Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke--will be essential reading for anyone seriously concerned with contemporary feminist issues.

    Katz Professor of History, York UniversityThis is a sensitive and compassionate portrayal of childhood, marriage, and adult life among the hard-working not-quite poor. It is an important contribution to our understanding of ourselves.--Robert S. Weiss, author of Marital Separation

    Widely praised when it was first published in 1977, the book has now been expanded to bring the story up to date. In a new chapter and epilogue, Richard and Dorothy Wertz discuss the recent focus on delivering perfect babies, with its emphasis on technology, prenatal testing, and Caesarean sections. They argue that there are many viable alternatives—including out-of-hospital births—in the search for the best birthing system.Review of the first edition:“Highly readable, extensively documented, and well illustrated…A welcome addition to American social history and women’s studies. It can also be read with profit by health planners, hospital administrators, ‘consumers’ of health care, and all those who are concerned with improving the circumstances associated with childbirth.”—Claire Elizabeth Fox, bulletin of the History of Medicine“A fascinating, brilliantly documented history not merely of childbirth, but of men’s attitudes towards women, the effect of a burgeoning medical profession on our very conception of maternity and motherhood, and the influence of religion on medical technology and science.”—Thomas J. Cottle, Boston Globe“This superb book…is both an impeccably documented recitation of the chronological history of medical intervention in American childbirth and a sociological analysis of the various meanings given to childbirth by individuals, interested groups, and American society as a whole.”—Barbara Howe, American Journal of SociologyRichard W. Wertz, a builder in Westport, Massachusetts, is formerly an associate professor of American history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Dorothy C. Wertz, is a research professor at the School of Public Health, Boston University

    Detailed analyses of the modern English writer's nine novels shed light on their themes, concerns, and stylistic techniques.

    23 Women Writers, Artists, Scientists, and Scholars Talk About Their Lives and Work by Sara Ruddick (Editor), J. Green (Contributor), A. Walker (Contributor), T. Olsen (Contributor), Pamela Daniels (Editor), M. Young (Contributor), Adrienne Rich (Contributor), M. Thornton (Contributor) , C. Sears (Contributor), N.V. Mengel (Contributor), C.R. Stimpson (Contributor), E.F. Keller (Contributor), M. Schapiro (Contributor), C. Gilbert (Contributor), M. Stevens (Contributor), D.G. Michener (Contributor), V. Valian (Contributor), C.Y. Yu (Contributor), A. Lasoff (Contributor), K.K. Hamod (Contributor), A. Rorty (Contributor), N. Weisstein (Contributor)