Book+Reviews+-+June+2015



Book Reviews June 2015

Previous Book Reviews Interested in reviewing books for // Women in Libraries // ? Check out our list of new and available books and review guidelines. If you would like to review, please contact Mary Jinglewski, Book Editor with a brief statement of your qualifications as a reviewer and your reason for interest in the particular item(s). toc

= = =//Defiant Brides: The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married//=
 * Nancy Rubin Stuart, Beacon, 2013.**

Reviewed b y Kate Clayborne

In //Defiant Brides//, Nancy Ruben Stuart sets out to examine two lesser-known figures of the American Revolution: Peggy Shippen Arnold, wife of the traitorous Benedict Arnold, and Lucy Flucker Knox, married to famed patriot Henry Knox. She frames the story as a comparison of their seemingly opposite narratives, hoping to dive beneath the popular conceptions of the two and reveal greater depths. Stuart seeks to show that despite the general perceptions of Shippen as a shallow, party-loving Loyalist and Knox as quiet Patriot most loyal to her husband, both were independent women acting upon motives of their own. However, it seems the historical record has left us with less to be known about them, and perhaps not enough to support this book's premise. As the author acknowledges, much of Peggy Shippen Arnold's correspondence was destroyed by descendants following her death, and Lucy Knox's letters have often been lost over time – including one we know her to have sent to Arnold following his betrayal. What remains is largely speculation on how the women "must have" or "probably" felt.

Stuart's book was clearly researched with great care, but whether any amount of effort could have revealed a truly rich detail of these women's lives seems questionable. Instead, we're left with what knowledge can be gained through the eyes of others, frequently the men who surrounded them. Much of the book reads like any other retelling of Benedict Arnold's betrayal, with a mention here and there of Peggy's pregnancies, travels to see her husband, and the occasional dinner party. Entire pages can go by without mentioning the name of either Shippen or Knox. The sections of the book focused on Shippen often spend more time discussing the motives and thoughts of the men in her life than they do her own.

The sections focused on Knox often feel nonexistent, fleshing her out about as much as the silhouette Stuart includes as her only known portrait. Defiant Brides hints at the fascinating events happening in the lives of these women; unfortunately, as in the case of the letter from Knox to Arnold, the actual details of these events too frequently go unseen.

Stuart's book is a dedicated microhistory, providing an in-depth and at times engaging look at two couples at a critical point in their lives, and in American history. By making use of so much as-yet-unpublished material, Stuart opens a door for further study, and her extensive bibliography of both primary and secondary resources could be of great assistance in future efforts. As a biography of either woman on her own, it does fall short of the mark. Nonetheless, its goal is admirable, and it does provide detailed breakdown of the revolutionary events happening at the time. In this way, it serves as a straightforward introduction to the women of the American Revolution and the context in which they lived. As it leans much more towards the academic, rather than popular history, //Defiant Brides// would probably be best-suited for college and university libraries.

//Kate Clayborne is currently a cataloguing project manager for Backstage Library Works. She received her MLIS from the University of British Columbia and a B.A. in American History from Mount Holyoke College.// = =

=//How Women Are Transforming Leadership: Four Key Traits Powering Success//=
 * Mary Lou Décosterd, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2013.**

Reviewed by Sharon Whitfield

In //How Women are Transforming Leadership//, Dr. Mary Lou Décosterd focuses on the concept that women are engendered with innate leadership skills. Using the IDEA-based leadership model, Décosterd argues that female leaders exhibit the following traits: intuitive orientation, directive force, empowering intent and assimilative nature. Females have been socialized to use these traits to interact and lead individuals to transform and improve their organizations. Décosterd argues that these traits have been pervasive in female leaders from Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt and Malala Yousafzai.

Yet, according to Décosterd, the same innate qualities that make women transformative leaders are in conflict with the authoritarian or masculine style of leadership of many corporations. This fact makes it difficult for many women to lead in a male dominated organization. Yet, if women are able to overcome this conflict, Décosterd believes that women can transform the male-based culture to be more forward thinking and grow as organization.

//How Women are Transforming Leadership// is an easy to read leadership text. The intended audience are females who are beginning to lead their organizations, but have minimal knowledge of leadership theory. The text engages the reader to think about the innate leadership traits that they possess. Décosterd puts forward a compelling case on how women are intrinsically better leaders, but does not provide information on how to foster those skills to become better leaders. Décosterd also provides little information on how female leaders transform an existing authoritarian organization to an egalitarian organization.

Similar to other business texts, Décosterd uses stories to demonstrate leaders that have put theory into practice, but Décosterd's stories fall short. The stories of the female leader presented often do not align with the leadership model being presented. The selection of female leaders is also perplexing. Décosterd selects leaders from different time periods and backgrounds, but provides no clear rationale for why they have been selected. Many of the female leaders provided as examples are not relatable nor would their methods of leadership be applicable to present day.

The final chapter of the text provides the reader with a call to arms for equal pay, inspiring quotes and more stories of female leadership. While this chapter did cheer and inspire, this chapter could have been better used to provide more insight on IDEA-based leadership. Although Décosterd’s book is another addition to an oversaturated market about women in business leadership, it is a brief (168 pages), pleasant read for anyone interested in IDEA-based leadership theory.

Dr. Décosterd has written two other leadership titles: //Right Brain/Left Brain President: Barack Obama's Uncommon Leadership Ability and How We Can Each Develop It// and //Right Brain/Left Brain Leadership: Shifting Style for Maximum Impact.//

//As a librarian for over eight years, Sharon Whitfield has had many different leadership opportunities. As a result, Sharon became inspired to begin doctoral studies in educational leadership at Rowan University. Sharon is looking forward to applying her knowledge of educational leadership in her professional role.//

=//A Poet’s Revolution: The Life of Denise Levertov//=
 * Donna Krolik Hollenberg, University of California Press, 2013.**

Reviewed by Stacy Russo

Donna Krolik Hollenberg, Professor of English at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, utilized family papers, interviews with Denise Levertov’s friends and family, letters, photographs, and manuscript collections from numerous libraries while writing this biography of one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century. It is important to note that the author had personal contact with the poet at an earlier time; she was a student in Levertov’s graduate poetry seminar. Hollenberg writes, “’Who am I?’ was an endlessly generative question for this poet” (p. 1). She sets out to examine Levertov’s evolving self, which she sees as a “revolution” of the creative and multifaceted person she was.

Hollenberg's study follows a traditional, linear structure that begins with a discussion of Levertov's childhood and family. Although the poet is considered a major voice in American literature, she was actually born outside London in semirural England. Hollenberg discusses Levertov's early reading and writing life, as well as her first love affair, an early job at an antique shop, and daily lunches with another poet. Levertov's second love affair, one that brought confusion, resulted in a pregnancy that she terminated. It was after her marriage to American Mitchell Goodman that Levertov moved to the United States while in her 20s.

Hollenberg interweaves Levertov's personal life with her poetry throughout the biography, including demonstrations of how the poet’s experiences as a woman were reflected in her poems. This occurs, for example, in poems Levertov wrote about childbirth and parenthood, as well as poems with content that reflected her activist life in the late 1960s. Her relationship with feminism, however, is a complex one. Hollenberg points out that Levertov objected to some “aspects of feminist poetry” (p. 220). Later, she states, “Denise had had reservations about feminism, and when lesbian feminists became prominent, it was too much for her to bear quietly” (p. 339), which led to a disagreement between Levertov and Adrienne Rich. Feminist readers may desire a deeper discussion of this than what Hollenberg provides.

Following her 1960s anti-war activism, Levertov was active in the antinuclear movement and ultimately became increasingly involved with liberation theology, a form of social justice rooted in Roman Catholicism. Hollenberg describes the poet’s growing involvement with activist work within a Christian context as a “dimension of Levertov’s inner revolution” (p. 351). In 1990, Levertov converted to Catholicism.

This biography is extensively researched and written with an overall harmony that connects the various elements of Hollenberg’s complex subject. The volume concludes with extensive notes, a lengthy bibliography, and a helpful index. The audience for this work includes general readers and scholars interested in literary biography, American literature, and women poets. It is well-suited for public and academic libraries.

//Stacy Russo is a librarian and associate professor at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, California. She serves as the chair of the Library Technology Program and is active in the Southern California poetry and zine culture. russo_stacy@sac.edu//

= = == =//Proof of Guilt: Barbara Graham and the Politics of Executing Women in America//=
 * Kathleen A. Cairns, University of Nebraska Press, 2013.**

Reviewed by Kate Conerton

In 1953 Barbara Graham, Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins tried to rob a house they believed was unoccupied. Discovering Mable Monahan at home they attacked her, and she later died of her injuries. All three were executed by the State of California in 1955.

Kathleen A. Cairns uses the trial and execution of Barbara Graham to discuss the history of capital punishment in the United States, particularly in regard to women. She argues convincingly that Graham drew far more attention than Santo and Perkins both before the trial and after their deaths largely because she was an attractive woman, and that Santo and Perkins may have been able to frame Graham for the actual attack because of her past as a petty though nonviolent criminal. The sections on the cultural significance of Gordon's execution are most interesting, analyzing media coverage, the popular adaptation I Want to Live!, and the use of her case by politicians both in favor of and against capital punishment.

Focusing so narrowly on a single case study has some limitations. Cairns occasionally brings in other examples to provide context - she does briefly describe the crimes and social stations of other women who were executed - but quickly returns to Barbara Graham and the effects her execution in particular had on later discussions of the death penalty. For a thorough introduction to the history of women, murder, and legal repercussions in the United States readers would do better with Ann Jones' Women Who Kill despite its age. However, casual readers and anyone interested primarily in capital punishment will find Proof of Guilt an approachable introduction to the history of executing people in the United States. It also serves as a well-researched biography of Barbara Gordon, covering her life from childhood to her time on death row. The writing is occasionally repetitive but overall clear and appropriate for a general audience, especially appropriate for public libraries and academic libraries supporting a criminal justice program.

Given increased concerns about executions by lethal injection after several botched executions involving new drug combinations, Proof of Guilt is also a timely account of changing ideas about capital punishment in the United States.

//Kate Conerton is a Research & Instruction Librarian at the University of Wyoming. kconerto@uwyo.edu//

=//Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Women’s Studies//=
 * Rachel Pienta, McGraw, 2013**.

Reviewed by Grace Kaletski

This book is a recent volume in the Taking Sides series published by McGraw-Hill. //Clashing Views in Women’s Studies// claims to represent two perspectives on a number of issues in Women’s Studies. Issues explored relate to some of the central contemporary questions addressed by the discipline, such as abortion, women in the military, and sex work. This volume follows the model of the //Taking Sides// series, wherein a brief introduction is followed by a number of controversial issues related to the topic at hand. Issues are organized into thematic units, then posed as questions, such as “Is access to birth control a basic human right?” Each question is prefaced by a short issue summary and then two essays, including one affirmative and one negative response. The essays are republished material that range from journal articles featuring original research to magazine opinion pieces. Each of these sections is followed by an original “exploring the issue” page that features questions for reflection, a summary analyzing the potential for common ground between each essay response, a bibliography of additional resources, and a list of internet references.

It is perhaps ironic that each issue is approached by //Taking Sides//’ binary model of “yes” or “no” in a discipline that strives to eradicate dichotomous ways of understanding. The issues discussed in this volume are much more complicated than a simple yes or no answer can suffice, as questions like “Is Access to Birth Control a Basic Human Right?” require a wide range of factors to be fully understood. There are rarely, if ever, only two contrasting opinions that fully represent the spectrum of perspectives on issues such as these. This model eradicates the potential for the more complex discussion they deserve.

The brevity of the culminating “exploring the issue” page fails to provide much additional context. Furthermore, since the essays posed in response to each issue question are republished from elsewhere, it is not always clear how they were chosen as they rarely provide a definitive answer. For example the issue question, “Should the Federal Government Adopt a New Legal Definition of Rape?” is supposedly answered negatively by the article “Beyond Traditional Definitions of Assault: Expanding Our Focus to Include Sexually Coercive Experiences.” Yet this article does not discuss federal definitions of rape or present any evidence contesting the question to which it is presented as a response. Instead, it describes research revealing the extent of symptoms experienced by victims of sexual coercion. These findings could arguably even answer the issue question with a “yes” and certainly do not provide a clear argument against it.

Although the title of the book implies that the dialogue it poses will debate issues that come between Women’s Studies scholars or activists, it is in fact at times more oriented towards debate between feminist thinkers or scholars of Women’s Studies and its conservative opponents. The two perspectives provided for each question generally include two responses that each reflect a feminist point of view, or one feminist point of view paired with one that is more conservative. Individuals in the Women’s Studies community certainly do not agree with one another on all of the issues in this book, but they generally share the common goal of exposing learners to feminist ideas and the complexity of gender-related concepts, and some of the essays seem incongruous with that goal. For example, the issue question “Have Working Women Destroyed the American Family?” -- which may seem more like a Fox News headline than a question posed for serious consideration by Women’s Studies scholars -- is both condemned and supported by its response essays. While every point of view is worthy of consideration, this question does not represent a particularly “clashing view” within the discipline of Women’s Studies.

This does not occur with every issue question, and the book may still be an enlightening introduction to some of the controversial topics addressed by the discipline. Although this title may be a good fit as a classroom textbook for introductory undergraduate Women’s Studies students, it is not an essential purchase for a library. As an anthology, much of its content may be available elsewhere. Perhaps the most valuable part of the text for libraries are the bibliographies and internet references provided for each topic. It can be time-consuming to track down and evaluate useful, legitimate web resources, and the resources listed in this book can be a great starting point for anyone investigating activism on these issues.

//Grace Kaletski is an MLIS candidate and graduate assistant at Florida State University. She has an MA in Women's Studies from the University of Alabama and a BA in English and Political Science from Birmingham-Southern College.//

=//The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History//=
 * Emma L.E. Reese, Bloomsbury, 2013.**

Reviewed by Anna Pinks

//The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History// by Emma L.E. Reese is both rigorously academic and firmly activist. In addition to being prolific in the field of gender studies, Reese is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Chester, specializing in early-modern literature and film. In //The Vagina// she melds these disciplines, exploring western perceptions of female sexuality and sexual organs through the lenses of literature, visual art, film and TV, and performance art. She shows how specific artistic expressions disempower women by cleaving their minds from their bodies and argues that this atomization of women’s sexual organs – and the portrayal of them as rebellious, dangerous and obscene – is a tool used by patriarchal cultures to further an anti-woman agenda. However, using examples from the feminist art movement, Reese also shows how artists have empowered women by depicting women’s bodies as integral to the human experience. She maintains that until women have an all-inclusive term that accurately names their genitalia as a whole (“vagina” only describing the birth canal) and that unites sexuality with personhood, women will suffer from “covert visibility” and a “fragmentation of self”. Not only is this psychologically damaging, but also physically in the forms of female genital mutilation (FGM) and elective labiaplasty.

In response to the issue of naming, Reese uses “cunt” throughout the work, but not without examining whether it can ever shed its negative connotations and enter the realm of neutral language. She writes, “If ‘she’ does have a ‘cunt’, is she actually entirely at odds with a culture that sees only obscenity in a word, rather than anatomical accuracy?” Though it is the most holistic descriptor of female genitalia, “cunt” has a long history of being an insult and a curse word even more loaded than the now ubiquitous “fuck”.

Reese deconstructs the primal myths of //vagina dentata// (Latin for toothed vagina), wherein fear of castration causes men to subdue women through marriage or brutal violence. She also examines the //vagina loquess// (talking vagina) starring in Diderot’s //Les Bijoux Indiscrets//, a story featuring a Congolese sultan whose magic ring makes vaginas reveal their owners’ sexual escapades. The women’s loss of bodily control strips their agency and signifies a mind at war with the body. Reese cites Gustav Corbet’s famed painting, //L’Origine Du Monde// (1866), of a woman’s torso and genitals disconnected from her head and limbs, as an example of the anonymous cunt where the subject’s identity is obscured to the viewer. Reese proposes that these early works set the precedence for the autotomized vagina in more recent media, such as the 1977 sexploitation film //Chatterbox// and the //South Park// episodes “Million Little Fibers” and “The Snuke.”

In contrast to these autotomized depictions of female genitalia, Reese shows how feminist artists have identified and flipped this paradigm by creating works that force the viewer to face the cunt as an integrated part of womanhood. Judy Chicago and her “cunt art” – specifically her works //The Dinner Party,// //Red Flag//, //Menstruation Bathroom//, and //The Birth Project// – facilitated feminist interventions into the art scene and challenged the “phallocentric logic” of the art world. Her work allows women’s genitalia to be “seen” rather than “obscene” and empowers women with overt visibility over covert. Reese describes childbirth images as particularly confronting to the viewer, as birth is inherently an act of the powerful cunt. Frida Kahlo’s painting //My Birth// is a prime example of this power, as it shows the vagina as both a giver and destroyer of life.

Feminist performance art is a particularly powerful way for women to express their wholeness. Reese writes, “Performance breaks down distinctions between the chaotic raw material of ‘life’, and the organized realm of ‘art’, and the body is the nexus of this breakdown”. Carolee Schneemann’s work //Interior Scroll//, wherein the artist reads a scroll of text as she removes it from her vagina, challenged viewers to recognize assumptions that men using women’s bodies for art is okay, but that when women use their own bodies it’s transgressive.

Reese questions the messaging of two cultural phenomena often praised as empowering women, Eve Ensler’s //The Vagina Monologues// and the widely popular HBO show //Sex in the City//. Reese critiques Ensler’s monologues about sexual violence, feeling they perpetuate the victimization of women. She also challenged Ensler’s exclusion and later periphery treatment of transsexual issues, which I found a bit hypocritical as Reese herself only really addresses these issues in four pages leading to The Vagina’s conclusion -- they seem an afterthought. Reese praises //Sex in the City//’s pioneering usage of the word “cunt” (though I question how pioneering it was considering the show aired late night on a premier cable channel that also aired pornography), but she also highlights the show’s inconsistencies in its portrayal of the main characters. The women were cohesive in the beginning but became fractured by ideological demands by the end of //Sex//’s several-season run.

Reese’s thesis is strong and runs clearly throughout the work. Her arguments are effective, though they would be more accessible to non-academic readers if she used more contemporary popular works as examples (//Sex and the City//’s final episode aired in 2004). The relative obscurity of many of her examples– such as the Bizarro literature of Carlton Mellick III and Catherine Breillat’s 2004 film //Anatomie de l’enfer// – may alienate some readers. The text is supplemented by eight pages of colored plates, but more are needed to better illustrate the highly visual works analyzed by Reese. Each chapter ends with notes, and an extensive bibliography evidences the thoroughness of Reece’s research. //The Vagina// would make a strong addition to academic libraries, particularly in institutions with programs in gender studies, cultural studies, art history, and semiotics.

//Anna Pinks is the Collections Services Librarian at Greensboro College. She received her MLIS from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her BA from Guilford College where she studied Religion and English.//