Customer Reviews

Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals

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The most powerful, cohesive summary of world history I have ever read. Supported by incredible research (500+++ footnotes per chapter). Marilyn French has formed a work of such astonishing clarity and vision that I am at a loss as to how describe it. Buy it, read it, and LEARN!

This book traces the origins and developement of the cult of power showing how the way that we are culturally organised today with men or pseudo men in positions of power was not always this way and is therefore not 'God given'.

She also shows that it has become so entrenched in our world that it does not exist in any place such as politics, industry, church etc but is now in all of us, in the way we think how we see and interpret things, and that we all need to look into our selves to find the way out of this. With an excellent grasp of the undertow of history she also shows that there have been many revolutions against power but they have all been squashed or assimillated into power, control and domination such as the Langadoc area in France the location of Chivalry, a sort of worship of the feminine that was destroyed by the only Crusade to take place in Europe.

So what to do if the more things change the more things remain the same. Read it and find out! Its a worthwhile journey and it is an adventure not to mention a step along the road to what we could be.

This book should be required reading in school because it is of such fundamental importance! I am giving a copy to every woman I know.

Marilyn French's Beyond Power is a description and analysis of our world and how it evolved through centuries of change from a matricentric world to our present patriarchal world. She identifies the element men have used for millenia to maintain supremacy: the continuing and unlimited search for power. Her analysis takes into consideration every aspect of life; she unifies her discussion by showing us how the quest for power over nature is man's focus. According to French, men see women as part of nature, which means they must conquer women as they are attempting to conquer nature. Of course men cannot completely overpower nature: life and death get in the way, as well as cancer and viruses and weather and earthquakes. French's book presents a unified argument which explains our world and how we have arrived at where we are. She also suggests a way to avoid the continued taking of power, which she sees as leading to totalitarianism. This book is one of the most important I have ever read. It is well worth the time it takes to read more than 500 pages. It is a tour de force.

Beyond power is an excellent book which I do not feel deserves the criticism of being romantic toward matrarchy. In fact Dr. French prefers a "cenric" morphology when making matri- words (I believe) over the domineering "arch". (She loves females as they should be loved and respected.) This book is far from romantic in any way--it is a book of liberation over oppression and deserves a good couple of thought-out readings. She is not toward woman becoming an oppressive figure over the male; that would be hypocritical. Her message needs to still be heard and heard the world over. BP is a book of broad scope and it is here where I see a divergent and intense mind seeking a beautiful cause-- but does she go too broad--no pun intended. I just question if a book of that scope can be written by anyone without being a tad fantastic and out of pure fact. I love the book and its message and I know that Dr. French has changed lives in a positive way. Men (who think above subcortex) should not be scard to read BP. I believe in positive feminism and as a man I see her book as truth--a good broad truth for the global thinker. Thanks,' Doug Anderson