Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WHAT A GREAT IDEA, September 10, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Unfinished Business: A Democrat and a Republican Take on the 10 Most Important Issues Women Face (Hardcover)
Most of the time you can't get all the nuances in the political back and forth that sometimes passes for debate on television. This book is a printed version of the debate. it is both far more absorbing, and it captures some of the details that televison overlooks. Not only have I enjoyed this book, but I find the resource lists at the end of each chapter useful. But I'll admit, it hasn't changed my mind about anything. I pikced up this book because I am a liberal Malveaux fan, and I remain so. I heard Malveaux and Perry on NPR, though, and I was intrigued by Ms. Perry, and by Dr. Malveaux's assertion that we on the left need to know what (and how) the enemy is thinking. This is absorbing, thought-provoking, useful. The collaboration is a great idea.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every woman should read this book, December 26, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Unfinished Business: A Democrat and a Republican Take on the 10 Most Important Issues Women Face (Hardcover)
I saw Julianne Malveaux mix it up after the BET Trent Lott interview and I went online to find out about anything she had written. This book is great! She explains why she is liberal, about all the things that have shaped her views, and why the government should play a role to providing a safety net to the disadvantaged. I really admire this woman. She needs her own television show, and to have her work more widely distributed. In my opinion, Deborah Perry is no match for Dr. Malveaux, but she seems to be an interesting woman who presents her point of view intelligently. Their views mesh well on globalization, and their sharpest differences are clear in the chapters on equal pay and on education. I don't see how any thinking woman can agree with Ms. Perry, but I appreciate her willingness to put her views out there. Three cheers to Julianne Malveaux -- I think that she has initiated a conversation that stretches and expands all of our thinking about women's issues. Cheers, too, to Deborah Perry for going toe to toe with Dr. Malveaux. Every woman should read this book and share it with her friends. It helped me clarify my views, and it reminded me how important it is to be involved in political work.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brief party lines on issues (oddly not so much on womens issues), December 11, 2006
The book title is deceptive and often the focus veers way off womens issues (or maybe it takes the holistic view that all issues are womens issues). For example the chapter entitled Education is mostly about school vouchers and how each political party feels about those without any attempts to tie this in to the effect on women. If you are looking for different political takes on random issues, then you will be more satisfied than if you were looking for different political takes on womens issues (as the book title might suggest that it is about). It is about social support policies, which maybe because of stereotypes we think of as womens work.
So now it's established that this is more about party policies on social support in general than about women. Each chapter has a version written by Perry and a version written by Malveaux. Each gives their party's take on that issue and drops names of various policies and groups that are pushing those policies. At the end of each chapter is a list of activist organizations for the republican and the democrat sides of that issue. I liked having both takes lined up side by side and having names dropped so that I could maybe have a clue when I see something pop up later. The focus is very time specific, with what policies are in the works right now (in 2002), so the book won't age well.
A distraction for me were the copious typos through out the book. My favorite by far was "welfare deform" - a mispelling and not an ironic misnomer, used in the section on economic safety nets. It's as if a spell checker was run on the book, but an actual person didn't go over it before it was printed. I knew what they meant, but it was still distracting.
Overall, if you aren't into politics at all, then this contains a plethora of jumping off points. If you are more into politics and have researched any of the issues here, then the treatment is probably so brief that you will tend to not get much on that issue - this book is unlikely to change your mind. That said, no one knows that much about ALL issues (do they?), and this is a fast read, so it is worth the time to get that overview and those jumping off points.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
