March is Women's History Month, and we're excited to highlight some of the wonderful books you can find at the DSLCC Library. A display showcasing these books can be found at the front of the library throughout the month of March.
Dear Sisters: Dispatches from the Women's Liberation Movement by Rosalyn Baxandall (Editor) and Linda Gordon (Editor): Today's women are so
comfortable in their authority that they often forget to credit the
women's liberation movement of the 1960s and '70s for paving the way --
from the kitchen to the boardroom, from sexual harassment to
self-defense, from cheerleading on the sidelines to playing center on
the team. Distinguished scholars and active participants in the
movement, Linda Gordon and Rosalyn Baxandall have collected a colorful
array of documents -- songs, leaflets, cartoons, position papers -- that
illustrate the range of people, places, organizations, and ideas that
made up the movement. Dear Sisters chronicles historical change
in such broad areas as health, work, and family, and captures the subtle
humor, unceasing passion, and overwhelming diversity that defined the
women's liberation movement.
Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards: From Lilith Fair to Buffy the Vampire Slayer
to the WNBA--everywhere you look, girl culture is clearly ascendant.
Young women live by feminism's goals, yet feminism itself is undeniably
at a crossroads; "girl power" feminists appear to be obsessed with
personal empowerment at the expense of politics while political
institutions such as Ms. and NOW are so battle weary they've lost their ability to speak to a new generation. In Manifesta,
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards show the snags in each feminist
hub--from the dissolution of riot grrrls into the likes of the Spice
Girls, to older women's hawking of young girls' imperiled self-esteem,
to the hyped hatred of feminist thorns like Katie Roiphe and Naomi
Wolf--and prove that these snags have not, in fact, torn feminism
asunder.
In an intelligent and incendiary argument, Baumgardner
and Richards address issues instead of feelings and the political as
well as the personal. They describe the seven deadly sins the media
commits against feminism, provide keys to accessible and urgent
activism, discuss why the ERA is still a relevant and crucial political
goal, and spell out what a world with equality would look like. They
apply Third Wave confidence to Second Wave consciousness, all the while
maintaining that the answer to feminism's problems is still feminism.
Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An Untold Maritime History by David Cordingly: For centuries the sea
has been regarded as a male domain. Fisherman, navy officers, pirates,
and explorers roamed the high seas while their wives and daughters
stayed on shore. Oceangoing adventurers and the crews of their ships
were part of an all-male world — or were they?
In this
illuminating historical narrative, maritime scholar David Cordingly
shows that in fact an astonishing number of women went to sea in the
great age of sail. Some traveled as the wives or mistresses of captains.
A few were smuggled aboard by officers or seaman. A number of cases
have come to light of young women dressing in men’s clothes and working
alongside the sailors for months, and sometimes years. In the U.S. and
Britsh navies, it was not uncommon for the wives of bosuns, carpenters,
and cooks to go to sea on warships. Cordingly’s tremendous research
shows that there was indeed a thriving female population — from female
pirates to the sirens of legend — on and around the high seas. A
landmark work of women’s history disguised as a spectacularly
entertaining yarn, Women Sailors and Sailors' Women will surprise and delight readers.
A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson: At the greatest moments
and in the cruelest times, black women have been a crucial part of
America's history. Now, the inspiring history of black women in America
is explored in vivid detail by two leaders in the fields of African
American and women's history.
A Shining Thread of Hope
chronicles the lives of black women from indentured servitude in the
early American colonies to the cruelty of antebellum plantations, from
the reign of lynch law in the Jim Crow South to the triumphs of the
Civil Rights era, and it illustrates how the story of black women in
America is as much a tale of courage and hope as it is a history of
struggle. On both an individual and a collective level, A Shining Thread of Hope
reveals the strength and spirit of black women and brings their stories
from the fringes of American history to a central position in our
understanding of the forces and events that have shaped this country.
What Every American Should Know About Women's History by Christine A. Lunardini: From Anne Hutchinson to
Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Betty Friedan, American women have been at the
forefront of the battle to extend the benefits of liberty to all
Americans. The 200 key events featured in this book range from early
colonial times to our own century, covering such issues as work, family
life, social reform, and equal rights.
Famous American Women: A Biographical Dictionary from Colonial Times to the Present by Robert McHenry (Editor): From Pocahontas to Twyla
Tharp, this invaluable reference documents the lives and careers of
1035 distinguished American women in biographical entries of about 400
words. Among them are artists, abolitionists, athletes, poets,
businesswomen, diplomats, lawyers, First Ladies, feminists, reformers,
teachers, missionaries, doctors, patriots, politicians, singers and
socialites.
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell: In 1942, the Gestapo
sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all
Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."
This spy was
Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service
because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into
the spy organization deemed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly
warfare," and, before the United States had even entered the war, became
the first woman to deploy to occupied France.
Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold. Just as she did in Clementine,
Sonia Purnell uncovers the captivating story of a powerful,
influential, yet shockingly overlooked heroine of the Second World War.
At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was
still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the "Madonna
of the Resistance," coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges,
report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for
Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters. Even as her
face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Virginia refused order
after order to evacuate. She finally escaped with her life in a grueling
hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates
all imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had "more lives to
save," she dove back in as soon as she could, organizing forces to
sabotage enemy lines and back up Allied forces landing on Normandy
beaches. Told with Purnell's signature insight and novelistic flare, A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy: Recruited by the U.S.
Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten
thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their
brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington
and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts
shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to
careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased
their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and
interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy
brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage,
service, and scientific accomplishment.
Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Weiner: In her mid-twenties, at
the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener—stuck, broke, and
looking for meaning in her work, like any good millennial--left a job in
book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved
from New York to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup
in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal
extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent
on domination, glory, and, of course, progress.
Anna
arrived amidst a massive cultural shift, as the tech industry rapidly
transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But
amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies, boyish
camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty, a new Silicon Valley began
to emerge: one in far over its head, one that enriched itself at the
expense of the idyllic future it claimed to be building.
Part
coming-age-story, part portrait of an already-bygone era, Anna Wiener’s
memoir is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup
culture at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild
fortune, and accelerating political power. With wit, candor, and heart,
Anna deftly charts the tech industry’s shift from self-appointed world
savior to democracy-endangering liability, alongside a personal
narrative of aspiration, ambivalence, and disillusionment.
Unsparing and incisive, Uncanny Valley
is a cautionary tale, and a revelatory interrogation of a world
reckoning with consequences its unwitting designers are only beginning
to understand.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly: Set amid the civil
rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s
African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in
America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a
group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the
flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these
were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated
from their white counterparts, these ‘coloured computers’ used pencil
and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets and
astronauts, into space. Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden
age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War and
the women’s rights movement, ‘Hidden Figures’ interweaves a rich history
of mankind’s greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five
courageous women whose work forever changed the world.
American Feminism: A Contemporary History by Ginette Castro: In this sweeping
literary, cultural, and political history, French sociologist Ginette
Castro vividly and dramatically tells the story of the contemporary
women's movement in the United States. From the liberal feminists, like
Betty Friedan, Mary Daly, and the members of NOW, to the radical
feminists, including Kate Millett, Ti-Grace Atkinson, New York Radical
Women, and Cell 16, Dr. Castro offers an enlivened yet balanced account
of the many different ideological currents within the movement. Central
to her contribution is the detailed reexamination of the role of the
radical feminists, and her efforts to neutralize the sensationalism
which has become attached to this segment of the movement.
Captured
here is the diversity of expression and yet the underlying unity, and
potential for ideological synthesis in the American feminist movement.
"American Feminism" makes an invaluable contribution to understanding
the course of feminism in the United States and its radical roots.
Becoming by Michelle Obama: In a life filled with
meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the
most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United
States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she
helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history,
while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and
girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways
that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with
her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing
moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool
Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving
media glare.
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and
mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world,
chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on
the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the
demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most
famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her
triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her
full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms.
Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of
a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and
whose story inspires us to do the same.
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land: At 28, Stephanie Land’s
plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific
Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a
writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected
pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a
tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life
possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a
college degree, and began to write relentlessly.
Maid
explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of
what it’s like to be in service to them. “I’d become a nameless ghost,”
Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom
do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about.
As she begins to discover more about her clients’ lives-their sadness
and love, too-she begins to find hope in her own path.
Her
writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker, and those
pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Stephanie’s story, but it’s not hers alone.
All book images and descriptions from Goodreads.com.
