Customer Reviews

Domesticity with a Difference: The Nonfiction of Catharine Beecher, Sarah J. Hale, Fanny Fern and Margaret Fuller

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The above review (What happened to True Scholarship?) does Tonkovich and her clearly written, well-argued book a real disservice. I am mystified as to how anyone could read a book so moderate in tone as a "rant." And, the fact that the above reviewer sees it as a prime example of "academic speak" shows that he or she has read very little academic criticism indeed. There are thousands who make much better targets than Tonkovich.

If Tokovich had spent more time analyzing the literature of the American renaissance rather than writing a politically correct pseudo-feminist rant against a supposed white patriarchal conspiracy, this might have been an interesting book. Tonkovich has a flair for language, but is so concerned with toeing the line of academic-speak that this book often reads as an unintentional satire of academic writing. For a wonderful intellectual experience, read this and follow it up with Don Dellilo's White Noise. The satire is all the more enhanced.