Customer Reviews

Sweetheart of the Silent Majority

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As a post-WWII baby-boomer, I wa quite familiar with Mrs. Schlafly's controversial public life. Regardless of the sour grapes in Beth T's review, this book is an excellent biography of an authentic twentieth century heroine. Both admired and scorned, Mrs. Schlafly lived out her personal convictions with drive and determination.

She put her family first, spending the first 21 years of her marriage establishing a home and personally pre-schooling her six children by teaching each one to read before entering public school. An author and co-author of a number of books and pamphlets, as well as a brilliant organizer and public orator, Mrs. Schlafly accomplished more by 9 a.m. than most people complete in an entire day!

She put herself through college, while working a full-time job testing ammo in a wartime factory, and later returned to school, where she was conferred a law degree. Mrs. Schlafly ran for public office twice, and spearheaded the successful defeat of the ERA, a document she believed to be one of the most pernicious and thoroughly dangerous documents in American history. Time has substantiated her assessment.

Author Carol Felsenthal is to be commended for this outstanding biography. Though her personal feminist ideology opposes Mrs. Schlafly's worldview, she rarely allowed that to show up in this book. That is as amazing as it is commendable.

For those interested in other books featuring Phyllis Schlafly, try "Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism," by Donald T. Critchlow. His book covers Mrs. Schlafly from more of an historical and political viewpoint, rather than a strict biographical perspective.

I really love this book, for it exposes Phyllis for what she really is, a professional hypocrite. This woman, who did everything in her power to defeat the ERA, was raised in a home where her mother was the chief breadwinner. As an adult, she married an attorney who made an excellent living, and while raising numerous children, could afford to employ full-time domestic help while she completed law school and pursued various political positions. In other words, the same person who told American women to be satisfied with the domestic side of life and second-class citizenship enjoyed the fruits of the pampered, powerful class, and was hardly ever home!
Although this reviewer has a negative attitude toward Phyllis as a traitor and anti-feminist, one can appreciate Ms. Felsenthal's compelling depiction of Phyllis's incredible stamina, which is something not all of us are blessed with. Most people can only do so much and need at least eight hours of sleep a night. To paraphrase Erma Bombeck, I am one of those moms who people won't call a great mom. but I spend a lot of time with my kids, play poker with them and eat cookies right out of the box.