Abstract
We are pleased to introduce readers to what we hope will be the first of many book review symposiums. In this inaugural “Conversations” feature, we present three reviews of A Strange Stirring and a response from author and feminist historian Stephanie Coontz. The premise of A Strange Stirring may strike some as odd. It is a book about a book—or, perhaps more accurately, the biography of a book—Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. Widely hailed as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, The Feminine Mystique is often credited with jump-starting the feminist movement in the 1960s. A Strange Stirring is not entirely accepting of these claims. Instead, Coontz attempts to explain how and why The Feminine Mystique made such an impact, despite being quite conservative by today’s standards.
As a social biography of the book, Coontz places The Feminine Mystique, its message, and its initial and continued reception in American culture in proper historical context. Coontz interviews men and women who had read the book when it was first published in 1963, reviews popular media from the time, examines letters written to Friedan by readers, and reflects critically on the book, its contents, and its impact on women, men, the feminist movement, and gender roles. She notes the limitations of Freidan’s initial analysis of “the problem that has no name,” including the critique that the problem of women’s unfulfilled human potential was largely a phenomenon of white, heterosexual, middle-class, married women, and thus not widely applicable to all women. Coontz attempts to understand why The Feminine Mystique has been so influential, despite the inherent limitations of Freidan’s original analysis.
Written for a general rather than academic audience, A Strange Stirring (like the book on which it focuses) has garnered quite a bit of attention in the popular press, with reviews in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and others. But, what can gender scholars gain, if anything, from A Strange Stirring? The three reviews by Guenther, Roth, and Whittier, all accomplished gender and social movement scholars, explore this question. Coontz’s reply responds to many of the critiques they raise and elaborates the issues she confronted when writing the book. The resulting conversation highlights the academic contributions of A Strange Stirring for gender and feminist scholarship.