Backlash

The Undeclared War Against American Women

By: Susan Faludi

Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed

Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

A new edition of the feminist classic, with an all-new introduction exploring the role of backlash in the 2016 election and laying out a path forward for 2020 and beyond

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award • "Enraging, enlightening, and invigorating, Backlash is, most of all, true." (Newsday)

First published in 1991, Backlash made headlines and became a best-selling classic for its thoroughgoing debunking of a decade-long antifeminist backlash against women’s advances. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Susan Faludi brilliantly deconstructed the reigning myths about the "costs" of women’s independence - from the supposed "man shortage" to the "infertility epidemic" to "career burnout" to "toxic day care" - and traced their circulation from Reagan-era politics through the echo chambers of mass media, advertising, and popular culture.

As Faludi writes in a new preface for this edition, much has changed in the intervening years: The Internet has given voice to a new generation of feminists. Corporations list "gender equality" among their core values. In 2019, a record number of women entered Congress. Yet the glass ceiling is still unshattered, women are still punished for wanting to succeed, and reproductive rights are hanging by a thread. This startling and essential book helps explain why women’s freedoms are still so demonized and threatened - and urges us to choose a different future.

©2009 Susan Faludi (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Backlash is the right book at exactly the right time...This trenchant, passionate, and lively book should be an eye-opener even for feminists who thought they understood what has been going on." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

"The backlash against women is real. This is the book we need to help us understand it, to struggle through the battle fatigue, and to keep going." (Alice Walker)

"Withering commentary... This eloquent, brilliantly argued book should be read by everyone concerned with gender equality." (Publishers Weekly)

A must read

I was surprised how much information is concisely expressed in this book about how the backlash affected American society. It is very well written and important to know and ponder.

30 years later? Reads like current events!

The history of women’s battle for full equality in the USA has been met with vitriol by men waving Bibles. The author lays out the history in all its stark darkness.
Unfortunately, the story is frequently interrupted by poor editing of the audio, with repeated phrases, including the errors necessitating the re-recording. It distracts from the compelling narrative of the author’s work.

Eye opening

I wish I had read this when it first came out in 1991. Unfortunately it is still current today. Eye opening.

A book that shows how little everything has changed

It is impossible not to be annoyed when you notice that most things that bothered women in the 80s still hold true and how some rhetoric keepsngettinf recycled. I would encourage everybody who is curious to know how the right keeps using the e same techniques to read or listen to the book.

The editing towards the eng gets a little sloppy and there are sometimes repetitions of sentence fragments.

Worthwhile, except for...

Overall, I learned a lot, and came to better understand the sociopolitical climate of my youth, growing up in the 70s and 80s. My only qualm is that Faludi didn't edit the parts that talked about Bill Cosby, and especially her indictment of Yusef Salaam, who has since been exonerated, and was horribly abused by systems that rely on the very ideologies Faludi rightfully critiques. I understand she wrote what was known at the time, but to leave those parts intact in the updated edition, without, at least, parenthetical updates and corrections, is disappointing. I do recommend this book, but with that disclaimer.

Truth

Depressingly still relevant; these concepts should be well-understood by all humans, should’ve been dismantled eons ago, should’nt have existed in the first place. Instead the toxic idea that women exist to serve & be controlled by men, and do not deserve the same level of respect as men (or any respect at all) still reigns in most minds - including the majority of women .

I am still trying to understand the 80s

This reminded me of a lot of what made the 1980s very difficult for me. I was in college most of that time and I was afraid of men. I knew what Reagan was saying. I knew what the political climate was about and I wanted to hide from it. At least I was in a liberal town: Ann Arbor, Michigan. I fought my fears by wandering campus after dark on purpose. But I was petrified of going to any kind of social gathering.

At the end of the book she writes about how the 90s should be the decade of the woman. It seems we take two steps forward and one step back. We take a leap sometimes, but only in response to huge setbacks like the loss of Roe. I wonder if Susan could have predicted Trump and this Supreme Court.