A Strange Stirring - by Stephanie Coontz (Paperback)

About the Book

An eminent social historian chronicles the extraordinary impact of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" on the "lost generation" of American women.

Book Synopsis

A brilliant examination of how Betty Friedan's revolutionary book The Feminine Mystique liberated women in the 1960s--and what it means to women today.

"An illuminating analysis of the book that helped launch the movement that freed women to participate more fully in American society." --Wall Street Journal

In 1963, Betty Friedan unleashed a storm of controversy with her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique. In A Strange Stirring, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz takes us back to the early 1960s--when women who wanted more out of life than housekeeping were labeled deviant, sexual hypocrisy and economic discrimination were rampant, and husbands controlled almost every aspect of family life.

Using extensive research and moving, personal interviews to examine what Friedan's book meant to the women and men who read it then, Coontz shows how Friedan stirred thousands of women to realize that their depression and self-doubt reflected not a personal weakness but a political injustice. She also explores what is and is not relevant about Friedan's message today.

Review Quotes

"A Strange Stirring enriches Coontz's impressive body of work on American family life .... She continues to deftly make history a personal science, persuading readers to ponder those societal yokes we've taken up to wear around our own necks."--Seattle Times

"A Strange Stirring gives voice to women whose lives were transformed by Friedan's book, but most compellingly, it sets the historical record straight as far as its impact on families."--Salon.com

"A Strange Stirring is fascinating."--Times (UK)

"A compelling critique of the impact of The Feminine Mystique as an impetus for the profound changes brought by the women's movement in the 1960s and 70s."--Reuters

"A fascinating examination of Friedan's much-misunderstood classic, A Strange Stirring should be required reading for any young woman today who believes that she's 'not a feminist.'"--Ladies' Home Journal

"A sharp revisiting of the generation that was floored by Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963), and how the book is still relevant today .... A valuable education for women and men."--Kirkus Reviews

"A timely contribution .... By considering The Feminine Mystique as one sturdy strand in the complex arguments we're engaged in to this day, Coontz does Friedan the tremendous favor of pulling her down from heaven and up from hell .... It's a relief to have the level-headed Coontz providing perspective and taking Friedan's work and legacy for what it was: stirring, strange, complicated and crucial."--New York Times Book Review

"A useful revisiting of Friedan's book."--Louis Menand, New Yorker

"Although Friedan claimed credit for initiating the modern feminist movement, Coontz places the book more dispassionately in its historical context as one of many factors working against entrenched gender roles. Still, Coontz demonstrates persuasively that women readers from many backgrounds found relief--some called it life-saving--in knowing that they were not crazy and not alone in their need to find some work independent of their family roles."--Library Journal

"An excellent new social history of the impact of Betty Friedan's landmark book on American women. . . . Coontz is the rare social historian who knows how to weave meticulous research into a compelling narrative of our not too distant past .... A Strange Stirring is, in many ways, better than the original. Today the problem has been named, and A Strange Stirring offers poignant personal reactions, accessible history and present-day comparisons to give voice to the modern quest for gender equality."--Christine Whelan, Huffington Post

"An illuminating analysis of the book that helped launch the movement that freed women to participate more fully in American society."--Wall Street Journal

"As women continue to struggle with the effort to balance life and work, Coontz argues that The Feminine Mystique remains as relevant today as when it first appeared. In tracing the roots of current discontents, which Coontz dubs the 'Supermom Mystique, ' her book is no less required reading than Friedan's trailblazer."--Booklist

"Coontz recounts the catalytic effect that The Feminine Mystique had on a great many women. Her book is full of stories of desperate, suffering people who realized they weren't crazy only when they picked up Friedan's bestseller .... But The Feminine Mystique is not just an artifact of a benighted era. It still contains important lessons about one of the most important questions of all, which is how to create a meaningful, autonomous life."--Michelle Goldberg, New Republic

"Coontz shows how Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique threw a lifeline to U.S. middle- and upper-class white women constrained by conformity."--Ms. Magazine

"Coontz's slim volume makes an illuminating companion to the book it examines ....The book is engaging, readable, and brief .... A worthwhile review of the changes wrought by the past half-century."--Dissent

"Excellent, eminently readable .... Coontz's 'demystifying' of both the era and Friedan is an erudite, even-handed look at the explosive feminist undercurrents of the era."--BUST

"For some of us, this is a jolting 'remember when'; for others, a slice of history forgotten all too soon. For all of us, there remains relevance."--Buffalo News

"Stephanie Coontz continues to amaze me. In her new book, A Strange Stirring, she chronicles the untold story of some of America's greatest pioneers. This is a must read for all who care about our country's growth and maturity."--John Bradshaw, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Healing the Shame That Binds You

"Stephanie Coontz is not just one of the most important historians in America, she is also a personal hero of mine and a brilliant writer. This book--like all her books before it--has been a marvel and education for me to behold .... I will keep A Strange Stirring in the forefront of my bookshelf forever."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"This book offers a nuanced perspective on the women's movement by ending the invisibility of African-American women."--Donna L. Franklin, author of Ensuring Inequality

"This perceptive and engrossing ... book provides welcome context and background to a still controversial bestseller that changed how women viewed themselves."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Stephanie Coontz is director of research and public education at the Council on Contemporary Families and emeritus faculty at Evergreen State College. She is the author of several books, including The Way We Never Were, The Way We Really Are, Marriage: A History, and For Better and Worse. She lives in Olympia, Washington.