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Abraham Lincoln: History in an Hour
by Kat SmutzLove history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.
Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era: History and Memory in Late Twentieth-Century America
by Barry SchwartzBy the 1920s, Abraham Lincoln had transcended the lingering controversies of the Civil War to become a secular saint, honored in North and South alike for his steadfast leadership in crisis. Throughout the Great Depression and World War II, Lincoln was invoked countless times as a reminder of America’s strength and wisdom, a commanding ideal against which weary citizens could see their own hardships in perspective. But as Barry Schwartz reveals in Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era, those years represent the apogee of Lincoln’s prestige. The decades following World War II brought radical changes to American culture, changes that led to the diminishing of all heroes—Lincoln not least among them. As Schwartz explains, growing sympathy for the plight of racial minorities, disenchantment with the American state, the lessening of patriotism in the wake of the Vietnam War, and an intensifying celebration of diversity, all contributed to a culture in which neither Lincoln nor any single person could be a heroic symbol for all Americans. Paradoxically, however, the very culture that made Lincoln an object of indifference, questioning, criticism, and even ridicule was a culture of unprecedented beneficence and inclusion, where racial, ethnic, and religious groups treated one another more fairly and justly than ever before. Thus, as the prestige of the Great Emancipator shrank, his legacy of equality continued to flourish. Drawing on a stunning range of sources—including films, cartoons, advertisements, surveys, shrine visitations, public commemorations, and more—Schwartz documents the decline of Lincoln’s public standing, asking throughout whether there is any path back from this post-heroic era. Can a new generation of Americans embrace again their epic past, including great leaders whom they know to be flawed? As the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial approaches, readers will discover here a stirring reminder that Lincoln, as a man, still has much to say to us—about our past, our present, and our possible futures.
Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era: History and Memory in Late Twentieth-Century America
by Barry SchwartzBy the 1920s, Abraham Lincoln had transcended the lingering controversies of the Civil War to become a secular saint, honored in North and South alike for his steadfast leadership in crisis. Throughout the Great Depression and World War II, Lincoln was invoked countless times as a reminder of America’s strength and wisdom, a commanding ideal against which weary citizens could see their own hardships in perspective. But as Barry Schwartz reveals in Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era, those years represent the apogee of Lincoln’s prestige. The decades following World War II brought radical changes to American culture, changes that led to the diminishing of all heroes—Lincoln not least among them. As Schwartz explains, growing sympathy for the plight of racial minorities, disenchantment with the American state, the lessening of patriotism in the wake of the Vietnam War, and an intensifying celebration of diversity, all contributed to a culture in which neither Lincoln nor any single person could be a heroic symbol for all Americans. Paradoxically, however, the very culture that made Lincoln an object of indifference, questioning, criticism, and even ridicule was a culture of unprecedented beneficence and inclusion, where racial, ethnic, and religious groups treated one another more fairly and justly than ever before. Thus, as the prestige of the Great Emancipator shrank, his legacy of equality continued to flourish. Drawing on a stunning range of sources—including films, cartoons, advertisements, surveys, shrine visitations, public commemorations, and more—Schwartz documents the decline of Lincoln’s public standing, asking throughout whether there is any path back from this post-heroic era. Can a new generation of Americans embrace again their epic past, including great leaders whom they know to be flawed? As the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial approaches, readers will discover here a stirring reminder that Lincoln, as a man, still has much to say to us—about our past, our present, and our possible futures.
Abroad in Japan: The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller
by Chris BroadTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'Chris Broad explores Japan in all its quirky glory..Endlessly fascinating!'Will Ferguson, author of Hokkaido Highway Blues'Carves a unique path across Japan bringing him into contact with far too many cats, heartening renewal in Tohoku, and even pizza with Ken Watanabe.'Iain Maloney, author of The Only Gaijin in the Village'Fascinating, fact-packed and very funny..An excellent and enjoyable read for the Japan-curious. I loved it and learned a lot.'Sam Baldwin, author of For Fukui's Sake: Two years in rural JapanWhen Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history?Abroad in Japan charts a decade of living in a foreign land and the chaos and culture clash that came with it. Packed with hilarious and fascinating stories, this book seeks out to unravel one the world's most complex cultures.Spanning ten years and all forty-seven prefectures, Chris takes us from the lush rice fields of the countryside to the frenetic neon-lit streets of Tokyo. With blockbuster moments such as a terrifying North Korean missile incident, a mortifying experience at a love hotel and a week spent with Japan's biggest movie star, Abroad in Japan is an extraordinary and informative journey through the Land of the Rising Sun.Number one Sunday Times bestseller, August 2023
The Absent Moon: A Memoir of a Short Childhood and a Long Depression
by Luiz Schwarcz'A beautiful work that is in turn haunting, touching and redemptive' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE'A profoundly emotional book, and a brave one' THE NEW YORKER'Generous in spirit, devoid of self-pity, and an authentic literary achievement' ANDREW SOLOMON ------When Luiz Schwarcz was a child, he was told little about his grandfather Láios, a Hungarian Jew. Only later would he learn that Láios had ordered his son, Luiz's father, to leap from a train taking them to a Nazi death camp, while Láios himself was carried on to his death.What Luiz did know was that his father's melancholia haunted the house he grew up in. As many children of trauma do, Luiz assumed responsibility for his parents' happiness, and for a time blossomed into the family prodigy. But then, at a high point of outward success, he was brought low by a devastating mental breakdown.This astonishing memoir interrogates a personal story of mental health through a family history of murder, dispossession, silence and the long echo of the Holocaust across generations – animated by the love and compassion of a master storyteller.-----'Brave, honest, devastating, and hopeful ... Schwarcz is a masterful storyteller' ARIANA NEUMANN'A lyrical and intimate portrait of the author's lifelong, harrowing battle with depression' ABRAHAM VERGHESE
The Absent Moon: A Memoir of a Short Childhood and a Long Depression
by Luiz Schwarcz'A beautiful work that is in turn haunting, touching and redemptive' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE'A profoundly emotional book, and a brave one' THE NEW YORKER'Generous in spirit, devoid of self-pity, and an authentic literary achievement' ANDREW SOLOMON ------When Luiz Schwarcz was a child, he was told little about his grandfather Láios, a Hungarian Jew. Only later would he learn that Láios had ordered his son, Luiz's father, to leap from a train taking them to a Nazi death camp, while Láios himself was carried on to his death.What Luiz did know was that his father's melancholia haunted the house he grew up in. As many children of trauma do, Luiz assumed responsibility for his parents' happiness, and for a time blossomed into the family prodigy. But then, at a high point of outward success, he was brought low by a devastating mental breakdown.This astonishing memoir interrogates a personal story of mental health through a family history of murder, dispossession, silence and the long echo of the Holocaust across generations – animated by the love and compassion of a master storyteller.-----'Brave, honest, devastating, and hopeful ... Schwarcz is a masterful storyteller' ARIANA NEUMANN'A lyrical and intimate portrait of the author's lifelong, harrowing battle with depression' ABRAHAM VERGHESE
Absolute Beginner: The Autobiography
by Patsy KensitPatsy Kensit is one of our most-loved actresses, a child star who grew up in the public eye and has remained there ever since. Her life has been a roller-coaster mix of adventure, drama and heartache, and it is only now that she finally feels ready to share her journey so far in this autobiography. In Absolute Beginner Patsy describes her extraordinary childhood, moving between the glamour of filming movies with Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow and the tiny London council flat she shared with her parents and brother. Even as her career was taking off, she was living with the devastating knowledge of her beloved mother's incurable cancer and was forced to hide her father's criminal past. She also writes about the ups and downs of life as an actress in a career that has spanned four decades, from her roles in films like the iconic Absolute Beginners, Lethal Weapon 2, 21 and Oscar-nominated Angels and Insects to playing the uber bitch Sadie King in Emmerdale and starring in Holby City. Vivid, intimate and touching, Absolute Beginner reveals the real Patsy – a warm and funny woman who is the ultimate survivor.
Absolute Pandemonium: My Louder Than Life Story
by Brian BlessedThere is no one quite like Brian Blessed. He's an actor, film star, trained undertaker, unlikely diplomat, secret romantic, martial artist and mountaineer. He's also a brilliant storyteller who will - and you must brace yourself - simply leap out of the pages at you. Ready? Then open Absolute Pandemonium and you'll be taken on a riotous journey from his childhood, growing up the son of a miner in Goldthorpe, to finding fame in Z-Cars. You'll see Brian falling for Katharine Hepburn on the set of The Trojan Women, suffering wires strapped round his wotsits as he was hoisted into the heavens on Flash Gordon, almost causing an international incident when meeting the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and winning round George Lucas to get the role of Boss Nass on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.Along the way he takes secret revenge on headmistress Mrs Jarman and her very big bottom, punches Harold Pinter, loves and hates Peter O'Toole, woos his beautiful wife Hildegard Neil and braves the shocking death toll on cosy TV drama My Family and Other Animals. Crammed with anecdotes from his illustrious career, this is a funny, warm-hearted, life-affirming, LOUD and unique memoir from a much-loved figure.
Absolute Power: The Real Lives of Europe’s Most Infamous Rulers
by CS Denton"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power"-Abraham LincolnThroughout history, all monarchs have lived with the strange dichotomy of simultaneously being human and more than human. In our time, when monarchies seem little more than tourist curiosities and democracy is taken for granted, it is easy to forget just how much power pre-democratic rulers once wielded.The rulers and holders of political power in this book were all possessed of vast - in many cases, absolute - power: power which was often exercised arbitrarily and unjustly.What unites the figures in this book is that they all, in one way or another, failed to live up to the extravagantly high hopes invested in them and, as a consequence, have been judged harshly by history.A few, such as George III, might have been remembered more kindly were it not for mental illness changing their status from that of hero to villain. Some, like Louis XVI, were unfairly transformed into monsters by hostile propaganda, while others, such as Peter the Great, have been both celebrated as heroes and denounced as tyrants, often in the same breath. Finally, there are those rulers who, like Caligula or Ivan the Terrible, may well fully deserve their evil reputations.Absolute Power is a study in how often rulers were carried away or overwhelmed by their exalted status, while a few were even driven over the edge into madness.
The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire
by Kal RaustialaA wide-ranging political biography of diplomat, Nobel prize winner, and civil rights leader Ralph Bunche. A legendary diplomat, scholar, and civil rights leader, Ralph Bunche was one of the most prominent Black Americans of the twentieth century. The first African American to obtain a political science Ph.D. from Harvard and a celebrated diplomat at the United Nations, he was once so famous he handed out the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Yet today Ralph Bunche is largely forgotten. In The Absolutely Indispensable Man, Kal Raustiala restores Bunche to his rightful place in history. He shows that Bunche was not only a singular figure in midcentury America; he was also one of the key architects of the postwar international order. Raustiala tells the story of Bunche's dramatic life, from his early years in prewar Los Angeles to UCLA, Harvard, the State Department, and the heights of global diplomacy at the United Nations. After narrowly avoiding assassination Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize for his ground-breaking mediation of the first Arab-Israeli conflict, catapulting him to popular fame. A central player in some of the most dramatic crises of the Cold War, he pioneered conflict management and peacekeeping at the UN. But as Raustiala argues, his most enduring achievement was his work to dismantle European empire. Bunche perceptively saw colonialism as the central issue of the 20th century and decolonization as a project of global racial justice. From marching with Martin Luther King to advising presidents and prime ministers, Ralph Bunche shaped our world in lasting ways. This definitive biography gives him his due. It also reminds us that postwar decolonization not only fundamentally transformed world politics, but also powerfully intersected with America's own civil rights struggle.
The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire
by Kal RaustialaA wide-ranging political biography of diplomat, Nobel prize winner, and civil rights leader Ralph Bunche. A legendary diplomat, scholar, and civil rights leader, Ralph Bunche was one of the most prominent Black Americans of the twentieth century. The first African American to obtain a political science Ph.D. from Harvard and a celebrated diplomat at the United Nations, he was once so famous he handed out the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Yet today Ralph Bunche is largely forgotten. In The Absolutely Indispensable Man, Kal Raustiala restores Bunche to his rightful place in history. He shows that Bunche was not only a singular figure in midcentury America; he was also one of the key architects of the postwar international order. Raustiala tells the story of Bunche's dramatic life, from his early years in prewar Los Angeles to UCLA, Harvard, the State Department, and the heights of global diplomacy at the United Nations. After narrowly avoiding assassination Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize for his ground-breaking mediation of the first Arab-Israeli conflict, catapulting him to popular fame. A central player in some of the most dramatic crises of the Cold War, he pioneered conflict management and peacekeeping at the UN. But as Raustiala argues, his most enduring achievement was his work to dismantle European empire. Bunche perceptively saw colonialism as the central issue of the 20th century and decolonization as a project of global racial justice. From marching with Martin Luther King to advising presidents and prime ministers, Ralph Bunche shaped our world in lasting ways. This definitive biography gives him his due. It also reminds us that postwar decolonization not only fundamentally transformed world politics, but also powerfully intersected with America's own civil rights struggle.
The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old And New (Canons #56)
by Annie DillardAnnie Dillard has spent a lifetime examining the world around her with eyes wide open, drinking in all things intensely and relentlessly. Whether observing a sublime lunar eclipse or a moth consumed in a candle flame, the trembling of lily pads on a pond or hundreds of red-winged blackbirds taking flight, Dillard's awe at the fragility of the natural world rejuvenates and inspires pleasure and heartache. Precise in language and deeply meditative in spirit, this is a landmark collection from one of America's masters.
The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life
by Theresa MayAs Prime Minister for three years and Home Secretary for six years, Theresa May confronted a series of issues in which the abuse of power led to devastating results for individuals and significantly damaged the reputation of, and trust in, public institutions and politicians. From the Hillsborough and Grenfell tragedies, to the Daniel Morgan case and parliamentary scandals, the powerful repeatedly chose to use their power not in the interests of the powerless but to serve themselves or to protect the organisation to which they belonged.The Abuse of Power is a searing exposé of injustice and an impassioned call to exercise power for the greater good. Drawing on examples from domestic and international affairs she was personally involved in at the highest level, including Stop and Search and the Salisbury Poisonings, the former prime minister argues for a radical rethink in how we approach our politics and public life.
Abyss: The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
by Max HastingsFrom the #1 bestselling historian Max Hastings The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the most perilous event in history, when mankind faced a looming nuclear collision between the United States and Soviet Union. During those weeks, the world gazed into the abyss of potential annihilation.
AC/DC: Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
by Mick WallMick Wall penetrates the closed world of Aussie rock legends AC/DC.AC/DC moved to Britain from Sydney in 1975, and soon set up a residency at London's Marquee Club. Their short hair (including the odd mullet), loud rock and attitude chimed well with the lingering pub rock and soon-to-be punk crowd. They weren't really a band for guitar solos, and singer Bon Scott was the original bike-riding, speed-snorting, fighting man. An ex-convict he lived life fast and short; he died in February 1980, just before BACK IN BLACK, their huge-selling album, took off and the second period of AC/DC (with Brian Johnson as lead vocalist) was ushered in. BACK IN BLACK has gone on to sell 45 million copies worldwide, and as the band have become a global phenomenon so their reclusiveness has increased. Mick Wall, the don of heavy metal writing, seeks to penetrate the wall around the Young brothers, and write the first authoritative, in-depth critical account of AC/DC.
An Academic Life: A Memoir (The William G. Bowen Memorial Series in Higher Education)
by Hanna Holborn GrayA compelling memoir by the first woman president of a major American universityHanna Holborn Gray has lived her entire life in the world of higher education. The daughter of academics, she fled Hitler's Germany with her parents in the 1930s, emigrating to New Haven, where her father was a professor at Yale University. She has studied and taught at some of the world's most prestigious universities. She was the first woman to serve as provost of Yale. In 1978, she became the first woman president of a major research university when she was appointed to lead the University of Chicago, a position she held for fifteen years. In 1991, Gray was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to education.An Academic Life is a candid self-portrait by one of academia's most respected trailblazers. Gray describes what it was like to grow up as a child of refugee parents, and reflects on the changing status of women in the academic world. She discusses the migration of intellectuals from Nazi-held Europe and the transformative role these exiles played in American higher education--and how the émigré experience in America transformed their own lives and work. She sheds light on the character of university communities, how they are structured and administered, and the balance they seek between tradition and innovation, teaching and research, and undergraduate and professional learning.An Academic Life speaks to the fundamental issues of purpose, academic freedom, and governance that arise time and again in higher education, and that pose sharp challenges to the independence and scholarly integrity of each new generation.
An Academic Life: A Memoir (The William G. Bowen Memorial Series in Higher Education)
by Hanna Holborn GrayA compelling memoir by the first woman president of a major American universityHanna Holborn Gray has lived her entire life in the world of higher education. The daughter of academics, she fled Hitler's Germany with her parents in the 1930s, emigrating to New Haven, where her father was a professor at Yale University. She has studied and taught at some of the world's most prestigious universities. She was the first woman to serve as provost of Yale. In 1978, she became the first woman president of a major research university when she was appointed to lead the University of Chicago, a position she held for fifteen years. In 1991, Gray was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to education.An Academic Life is a candid self-portrait by one of academia's most respected trailblazers. Gray describes what it was like to grow up as a child of refugee parents, and reflects on the changing status of women in the academic world. She discusses the migration of intellectuals from Nazi-held Europe and the transformative role these exiles played in American higher education--and how the émigré experience in America transformed their own lives and work. She sheds light on the character of university communities, how they are structured and administered, and the balance they seek between tradition and innovation, teaching and research, and undergraduate and professional learning.An Academic Life speaks to the fundamental issues of purpose, academic freedom, and governance that arise time and again in higher education, and that pose sharp challenges to the independence and scholarly integrity of each new generation.
Access All Areas: A Backstage Pass Through 50 Years of Music And Culture
by Barbara CharoneFirst as a journalist and then a publicist at Warner Brothers Records for nearly twenty years, Barbara Charone has experienced, first-hand, the changes in the cultural landscape. Access All Areas is a personal, insightful and humorous memoir packed with stories of being on the cultural frontline, from first writing press releases on a typewriter driven by Tip Ex, then as a press officer for heavy metal bands taking the bus up to Donnington Festival with coffee, croissants and the much more popular sulfate. To taking on Madonna, an unknown girl from Detroit, and telling Smash Hits 'you don't have to run the piece if the single doesn't chart', and becoming a true pioneer in music, Charone continues to work with the biggest names in music, including Depeche Mode, Robert Plant, Foo Fighters and Mark Ronson at her agency MBCPR.The story of how a music-loving, budding journalist from a Chicago suburb became the defining music publicist of her generation, Access All Areas is a time capsule of the last fifty years, told through the lens of music.
Access All Areas: Stories from a Hard Rock Life
by Scott IanEntertaining, crazy, and hilarious stories from Scott Ian of AnthraxScott Ian, famous for cofounding legendary thrash metal band Anthrax and only slightly less so for his iconic beard, has done and seen a lot in his decades of touring. Those of you who have read Scott's memoir I'm the Man may know the history of the band, but Access All Areas divulges all the zany, bizarre, funny, and captivating tales of what went on when the band wasn't busy crafting chart-topping albums.In his more than thirty years immersed in the hard rock scene, Scott has witnessed haunting acts of depravity backstage, punched a legendary musician, been a bouncer at an exclusive night club, guest-starred with Anthrax on Married with Children, invaded a fellow rock star's home, played poker professionally, gone on a non-date with a certain material girl, appeared on The Walking Dead, and much more.Access All Areas allows its readers to do just that. With humor, candor, hindsight, and writing chops that would make Stephen King jealous (nope, not even on Bizarro world), Scott Ian takes his fans along for the ride at all the parties, hot spots, and behind-the-scenes shenanigans they will never hear about from anyone else. And none of it would have happened without a bit of divine inspiration from KISS. (No, seriously. Read chapter two.) Best of all, Scott seemingly lacks the ability to be embarrassed, making Access All Areas howlingly funny, self-deprecating, and every bit as brash and brazen as one would expect from one of the original architects of speed metal.
The Accidental Adventurer: My Weird And Wonderful Life
by Ben FogleBen Fogle's life has been action-packed to say the least. He has rowed across the Atlantic, walked to the South Pole, run the Sahara and ice-skated across Sweden. He has encountered isolated tribes in deepest Papua New Guinea, caused a Boeing 747 to dump £100k of fuel before making an emergency landing in Sao Paolo, and frequently been mistaken for Prince William along the way.So how did a cripplingly shy, geeky, perennially homesick boy end up doing all this? Ben's still not entirely sure himself, but this wonderful book tells his story and will strike a chord with anyone puzzling about life, and how to live it differently. This is a book about defying expectations, conquering fears, battling laziness and, just occasionally, winning.
The Accidental Detectorist: Uncovering an Underground Obsession
by Nigel Richardson'Richardson writes beautifully about his return to the land, about listening to the soil and about understanding the ancient world.' - The SpectatorEach new field is hope, each old one reality.There are things below the surface that pull people together in a shared love of history, landscape and the hope that, this time, something incredible will be unearthed.When a travel writer is stuck on home soil in the middle of a pandemic he tries his hand at metal detecting - and is instantly addicted. This all-consuming hobby takes him around the country, back through history and deep into the psyches(his own included) of those hooked on 'happy bleeps'.The Accidental Detectorist is a big-hearted dig into a pastime sometimes mocked but always enticing.***When locked-down travel writer Nigel Richardson is looking for a travel story close to his country cottage he turns to a leading metal detectorist with an infectious passion for the hobby. Before he knows it the mysteries of the fields are leading him on, into a world that casts the history of these isles and its people in an intriguing new light.Sifting Britain's soil from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, Nigel yearns to lose his detectorist's virginity by finding a 'hammered' coin - while learning that the search for treasure comes with a serious responsibility to our common heritage. As he immerses himself further in the world of metal detecting, exposing the shady activities of 'nighthawks', attending rallies and making lifelong friends, a change comes over him. This country beneath his feet, these people who scour it for clues and tokens - they are the home he's been looking for.
The Accidental Duchess: From Farmer's Daughter to Belvoir Castle
by Emma Manners, RutlandLife in a castle isn’t always a fairytale, as the Duchess of Rutland vividly illustrates in her fascinating, revealing and funny autobiography.When Emma Watkins, the pony-mad daughter of a Welsh farmer, imagined her future it was as the wife of a younger version of her father. But then she fell in love with David Manners, having no idea that he was heir to one of the most senior hereditary titles in the land. When David succeeded his father, against all the odds Emma became the chatelaine of Belvoir Castle, ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland.She had to cope with five boisterous children while faced with a vast estate in desperate need of modernisation and staff who wanted nothing to change - it was a daunting responsibility. Yet with sound advice from the doyenne of duchesses, ‘Debo’ Devonshire, she met each challenge with optimism and gusto, including scaling the castle roof in a storm to unclog a flooding gutter; being caught in her nightdress by mesmerised Texan tourists; and disguising herself as a cleaner to watch filming of The Crown. She even took on the castle ghosts . . . At times the problems she faced seemed insoluble, yet with her unstoppable energy and talent for thinking on the hoof, she won through, inspired by the vision and passion of those Rutland duchesses in whose footsteps she trod, and indeed the redoubtable and resourceful women who forged her, whose homes were not castles but remote farmhouses in the Radnorshire hills.Vividly written and bursting with insights, The Accidental Duchess will appeal to everyone who has visited a stately home and wondered what it would be like to live there.
The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted by Her Beauty to Notice
by M. G. LordMovie stars establish themselves as brands--and Taylor's brand , in its most memorable outings, has repeatedly introduced a broad audience to feminist ideas. In her breakout film, "National Velvet" (1944), Taylor's character challenges gender discrimination,: Forbidden as a girl to ride her beloved horse in an important race, she poses as a male jockey. Her next milestone, "A Place in the Sun" (1951), can be seen as an abortion rights movie--a cautionary tale from a time before women had ready access to birth control. In "Butterfield 8" (1960), for which she won an Oscar, Taylor isn't censured because she's a prostitute, but because she chooses the men: she controls her sexuality, a core tenet of the third-wave feminism that emerged in the 1990s. Even "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) depicts the anguish that befalls a woman when the only way she can express herself is through her husband's stalled career and children. The legendary actress has lived her life defiantly in public--undermining post-war reactionary sex roles, helping directors thwart the Hollywood Production Code, which censored film content between 1934 and 1967. Defying death threats she spearheaded fundraising for AIDS research in the first years of the epidemic, and has championed the rights of people to love whom they love, regardless of gender. Yet her powerful feminist impact has been hidden in plain sight. Drawing on unpublished letters and scripts as well as interviews with Kate Burton, Gore Vidal, Austin Pendleton, Kevin McCarthy, Liz Smith, and others, The Accidental Feminist will surprise Taylor and film fans with its originality and will add a startling dimension to the star's enduring mystique.