The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall

Transforming a Rape Culture
Emilie Buchwald, Pamela R. Fletcher and Martha Roth, Editors

Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller

Mother Journeys
Maureen Reddy, Martha Roth, and Amy Sheldon, Editors

Basic Needs: A Year with Street Kids in a City School by Julie Landsman

Milkweed Editions, 1993
241 pages

Winner of the 1993 Minnesota Book Award for nonfiction, Basic Needs bears witness to some of today’s harshest classroom realities. Written in a style that is often poetic, it consists of journal entries of a wise and compassionate teacher in a Minneapolis school for “children at risk,” those who have failed, dropped out, or been kicked out of other schools. Julie Landsman has an attachment to her students—many of whom live on the street—that she must temper with the reality of their eventual, and sometimes sudden, leaving. By the end of this book you will know these kids. Their stories captivate, sadden, and inspire, and you will want to reach out to them.
Landsman has also written a supplement to Basic Needs, “Tips for Creating a Manageable Classroom.” It includes many practical suggestions and strategies for preventing classroom problems from arising and for managing the ones that do. Among the tips is one for making a problem student an ally: “Make sure to acknowledge the student with a greeting in the hallway or the lunchroom. It is always surprising to me how small amounts of recognition, done in a subtle way, can win over some of the toughest students.” J.M.

Excerpt

I think about Jackie choosing to hide out rather than go back to the stepbrother who waited outside the door to her bedroom, finding places to sleep when the winter came. I remember her description of the fight on Franklin Avenue, her pimp going down. I remember the knife that caught the light in a room in D.C., and the one in my classroom a few months ago. I think about Lesley and Walter, about the courage it takes to make it in this world.

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The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser

Alfred A Knopf, 1984
470 pages

If you’ve ever wondered, “What were the women doing?” when reading a standard history text, this fascinating book can satisfy your curiosity. The Weaker Vessel depicts the lives of women during the seventeenth century, a period spanning the years following the death of Elizabeth I through the time of Cromwell up to the accession of Queen Anne. The author often lets the women speak for themselves via their diaries and letters. Some of the exploits of the “weaker vessels” include: defending castles during the English civil war, going to prison for preaching their Quaker beliefs, suffering persecution as witches, and going on the stage during the ribald Restoration era. L.H.

Excerpt

With due respect to St. Paul, why did the question of women preaching arouse such extreme apprehension? A popular rhyme of 1641 entitled “Lucifer’s Lackey or The Devil’s New Creation” ran: “When women preach and cobblers pray/The friends in hell make holiday.” At the bottom, it was woman’s demand for freedom of conscience rather than for freedom to “prate” which caused concern. The crude mockery of “Lucifer Lackey” masked a real dread that a woman who placed conscience above husband and family might consider herself outside the former’s control.

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Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall

Random House, 1994
Autobiography, 399 pages

Nathan McCall’s story of growing up black in the 60s and 70s is an eye-opening, if disturbing account of a world of violence and the male machismo of the streets. McCall went from street pranks as a ten-year old to carrying handguns and a sawed-off shotgun as a teenager. At 20 he served a prison term for armed robbery. McCall is one of the lucky ones. He made it past the rage, returned to school, and today writes for The Washington Post. McCall looks back on his life and lets the reader in on what propelled him to do what he did. He offers no pat explanations or solutions, but makes it clear that racism and the perception among blacks that their choices are limited is at the root of the culture of violence that is consuming young black men. J.G.. J.M.

Excerpt

I have come to believe two things that might seem contradictory: Some of our worst childhood fears were true—the establishment is teeming with racism. Yet I also believe whites are as befuddled about race as we are, and they’re as scared of us as we are of them. Many of them are seeking solutions, just like us.

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Transforming a Rape Culture
Emilie Buchwald, Pamela R. Fletcher and Martha Roth, Editors

Milkweed Editions, 1993
Essays, 450 pages

Faced with the grim statistics of rape in America, the editors of Transforming a Rape Culture ask how we can “eradicate the sources of sexual violence.” In 35 thoughtful, strikingly frank essays women and men explore just what it would take. Activists, theologians, writers, and others identify causes of sexual violence and propose strategies for change and visions for the future. Among the offerings: “I Want A Twenty-Four-Hour Truce During Which There Is No Rape,” Andrea Dworkin’s speech to the men’s movement; Richard Orton’s “Outside In: A Man in the Movement;” “Seduced by Violence No More” by bell hooks; and “In Praise of Insubordination” by Ines Hernandez-Avila. While readers may find some of the ideas controversial, they speak to the core of our well-being as a society and cannot be ignored. N.P.

Excerpt

There is an old Cheyenne saying, “A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done, no matter how strong the weapons, or how brave the warriors.” How do all of us as women ensure that out hearts do not hit the ground?....I give myself time to take care of myself. I learn how to cleanse myself and heal myself. I take care of my spirit, so that my spirit will help me take care of the rest of myself. I love and let myself be loved. I accept the responsibility of freedom that my conciencia offers me. I dance, I take my stands, and I choose with whom I will stand. I raise my voice in song, in prayer, in message, and yes, in protest and challenge. These are the things that are good for me. And if, by being good to myself in this way, I am called a “bad woman,” a “traitor,” a sellout, or a bitch, I don’t care. I welcome my own delicious insubordination and savor its inspiration.
—Ines Hernandez-Avila

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Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller

W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1971
Essays, 179 pages

In Woman in the Nineteenth Century Margaret Fuller presents her philosophy on the condition of women. Arguing that better treatment for women would benefit the entire society, her ideas seem moderate and wholly reasonable today. In 1843, when women were seen as property and treated as emotional children, Fuller’s theories were ground-breaking and revolutionary. Many considered them dangerous. She was taken seriously, however, by the intellectual circle to which she belonged, if not by the culture at large. Readable, moving, and eloquent, her words surely helped inspire the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 that lead to the eventual attainment of the rights women take for granted today. R.T

Excerpt

I have urged on Woman independence of Man, not that I do not think the sexes mutually needed by one another, but because in Woman this fact has led to an excessive devotion, which has cooled love, degraded marriage, and prevented either sex from being what it should be to itself or the other.
I wish Woman to live, first for God’s sake. Then she will not make an imperfect man her god, and thus sink to idolatry. Then she will not take what is not fit for her from a sense of weakness and poverty. Then, if she finds what she needs in Man embodied, she will know how to love, and be worthy of being loved.

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Mother Journeys
Maureen Reddy, Martha Roth, and Amy Sheldon, Editors

Spinsters Ink, 1994
Essays, Stories, Poems, Drawings, 318 pages

This rich and varied collection of essays, poems, and stories explores what it means to be a feminist mother. The answers are complicated and grow out of a wide range of issues. Women write about the pain of infertility and miscarriage, about the special concerns of adoptive parents, and of raising biracial children. Other writers reflect on the way mothering changes a person, as a woman and a feminist. They reveal the universal hopes and fears of mothers engaged in the push and pull struggles with children on their path to autonomy. Feminist or not, mothers everywhere will recognize the fierce love of women for their children that informs this thoughtful, often provocative, collection. C.W.

Excerpt

I walked along Forbidden Drive thinking of all the wise and memorable things I still wanted to teach Rebecca: Travel abroad whenever you can. Learn the names of wildflowers. Watch out for the big trucks and tanks. Talk to your teachers. Did I tell her well enough how afraid I am of nuclear war? My neglect was so vast, it made my teeth ache. But I did not remember to say it all, and we were caught in time’s implacable grind. Our life together was measured then in weeks, and before us was a certain slant of light, an open door. There was no shutting it. My formal grief was bound only by the thrill of watching my last child step into the glare of a vast and uneasy world.
—Molly Layton

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