Jane Fonda's War: A Political Biography of an Antiwar Icon (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

What's important is that [Fonda's] immersion in radical politics during the 1970s transcended the role traditionally assigned not just to celebrities but to women in general. Jane paved the way for the celebrity feminist activists of today, such as Oprah Winfrey, Eve Ensler, Roisie O'Donnell, and Susan Sarandon.

Product Description

An antidote to the "Hanoi Jane" myth, the first account of the celebrated actress's antiwar activism.

Jane Fonda is important because she is a celebrity, and unimportant because she is a celebrity. She is a revolutionary who happens to be an actress, and a movie star who happens to be a revolutionary.—Rolling Stone, 1972

As the recent presidential campaign revealed, the Vietnam war remains a political lightning rod. In the 1980s, even as a Gallup poll listed Fonda as one of the most admired women in the country, "Hanoi Jane" had become a reviled figure among conservatives for her highly publicized trip to North Vietnam in 1972. Today, according to a recent poll, millions of Americans continue to link Fonda's name to Vietnam—yet the true history of her antiwar work has been largely obscured.

One of the most popular movie actresses of the 1960s and 1970s, Fonda was also among the most committed and visible antiwar activists of the era. Coming on the heels of Jane Fonda's own memoir, this is the first book to document one of the most interesting (and least known) chapters in Fonda's life—including the first comprehensive account of her controversial trips to Hanoi, as well as her extensive efforts on behalf of American GIs.

Based on unprecedented access to Fonda's twenty-foot-thick FBI files, interviews with the former POWs Fonda met with in Hanoi in 1972, and a broad range of contemporary press reports, Jane Fonda's War is a fascinating and little-understood chapter in the extraordinary life of an American icon. 20 black-and-white photographs.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Press (September 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565849884
• ISBN-13: 978-1565849884
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #491,010 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Hershberger Spells It All Out, August 7, 2006

By	Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I enjoyed recreating Jane Fonda's antiwar activism during the Vietnam conflict that so divided our nation. Mary Hershberger's earlier book was at once a more generalized account of US liberals sojourning to Hanoi while the two countires were at war, and a much more academic book than this one, which really could be read alongside the Oscar winning actress' own memoirs MY LIFE SO FAR. I think Jane Fonda might have consulted Hershberger for help on some details because at this point it's plain that Hershberger, a Ohio history professor, knows more about what Jane was up to during those years than she does.

In retrospect it is astonishing that, with the weight of all the right wing press against her, Jane was able to make a comeback in the 1970s and 1980s in the movies, becoming one of the world's most popular film actresses. Even though her movies were sometimes preachy vehicles for her social pnilosophies, she was usually pretty good in them and two or three, from today's standpoint, are first-rate films no one should be ashamed of. However, as Hershberger points out, the invention of the internet was decidedly a blow for Fonda, as it has been used by innumerable right wing groups to spread lies about her activities in Hanoi and elsewhere.

To be fair, these rumors have some basis in reality, but often what started out as something good that Jane did was turned around and made into something evil. Thus the urban legend about the US POWs she was alleged to have met with, and then she asked them for their social security numbers, in the guise of helping them get out. In the 2006 version propulgated by hatemongers, Fonda "jeered at the POWs and then handed their pieces of paper to the Vietnamese guards. Again, the men were severely beaten until three of them died, leaving only the fourth one to tell the tale." Needless to say, this story is completely false. Books have sprung up arguing that Fonda should be tried for treason. It's insane.

Not to say she wasn't getting it from the Left the whole time, for the Godard-Gorin LETTER TO JANE is equally an appalling document, based on the fact that men think they can say anything bad about a woman and get away with it. Nasty little creeps.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A More Complete Story, August 18, 2009

By	Robert D. Sanchez "Clear Lake Man" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Thank you Mary Hershberger for a book long over due. This book along with your other Jane Fonda book captures Jane Fonda in her totality. I do think much of the anger directed at Fonda stems from anger at the government that placed millions of US Troops in a position where they could not win a war with conventional methods and the fact that the Government abandoned them after they returned home.

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was fabricated to get us into a war that we didn't need to get in. Love her or hate her at least Fonda was not afraid to go to Vietnam unlike George W., Dan Quale, Tom DeLay, Dick Cheney, Ted Nudget, Pat Buchanan and the rest of the chicken hawks.

The fact that the right has failed to destroy Fonda professionally and the fact that she is well received by the public as a whole makes them all the more angry. Fonda didn't send anyone to Vietnam the politicians and the Pentagon did. The right asks blacks, Native Americans, Palestians, etc. to over on and get over it (past injustices). Seems they should do the same.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Woman, April 6, 2008

By	Donald H. Forbes - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A great woman and a great cause. Her courage is remarkable no matter which side you are on. History has proven her right.