The Women and War Reader (Paperback)

by Lois Lorentzen (Author), Jennifer Turpin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The editors. . . whose work also appears, have presented us with a valuable resource for years to come."

- Peace News

"The strength of The Women and War Reader lies in its both interdisciplinary and geographically diverse approach. It confronts the devastating impact of wartime violence and militarized societies on women."

- Iris

Product Description

"The editors. . . whose work also appears, have presented us with a valuable resource for years to come."
—Peace News

"The strength of The Women and War Reader lies in its both interdisciplinary and geographically diverse approach. It confronts the devastating impact of wartime violence and militarized societies on women."
—Iris

War affects women in profoundly different ways than men. Women play many roles during wartime: they are "gendered" as mothers, as soldiers, as munitions makers, as caretakers, as sex workers. How is it that womanhood in the context of war may mean, for one woman, tearfully sending her son off to war, and for another, engaging in civil disobedience against the state? Why do we think of war as "men's business" when women are more likely to be killed in war and to become war refugees than men?

The Women and War Reader brings together the work of the foremost scholars on women and war to address questions of ethnicity, citizenship, women's agency, policy making, women and the war complex, peacemaking, and aspects of motherhood. Moving beyond simplistic gender dichotomies, the volume leaves behind outdated arguments about militarist men and pacifist women while still recognizing that there are patterns of difference in men's and women's relationships to war.

The Women and War Reader challenges essentialist, class-based, and ethnocentric analysis. A comprehensive volume covering such regions as the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine, Iran, Nicaragua, Chiapas, South Africa, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and India, it will provide a much-needed resource. The volume includes the work of over 35 contributors, including Cynthia Enloe, Sara Ruddick, V. Spike Peterson, Betty Reardon, April Carter, Leila J. Rupp, Harriet Hyman Alonso, Francine D'Amico, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, and Carolyn Nordstrom.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 382 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814751458
• ISBN-13: 978-0814751459
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #829,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent start, May 6, 2000

By	"tksc" (NY USA) - See all my reviews

The intersection of women's experience of and in relation to war is indeed an important and mostly neglected field of study. This book is a positive step towards this direction. However, the essays here are more cursory than substantial. This is a reader, an introduction of sorts, but the best readers collections most often consist of exemplary passages or works in a particular field. None of the essays in this collection have the weight to stand on its own. As a collection, this reader presents a sample of the major issues and areas of study being conducted today. At best, the book contains footnotes to more formidable and groundbreaking works.