Whose story is this? : old conflicts, new chapters

Title:

Author:

Summary:

"Who gets to shape the narrative of our times? The current moment is a battle royale over that foundational power, one in which women, people of color, non-straight people are telling other versions, and white people and men and particularly white men are trying to hang onto the old versions and their own centrality. In Whose Story Is This? Rebecca Solnit appraises what's emerging and why it matters and what the obstacles are."-- Provided by publisher.

General Note:

Previous versions of these essays appeared in other publications.

Contents:

Whose story (and country) is this? -- Nobody knows -- They think they can bully the truth -- Unconscious bias is running for president -- Voter suppression begins at home -- Lies become laws -- The fall of men has been greatly exaggerated -- Dear Christine Blasey Ford: You are a welcome earthquake -- Let this flood of women's stories never cease -- The problem with sex is capitalism -- On women's work and the myth of the art monster -- All the rage -- If I were a man -- Crossing over -- City of women -- A hero is a disaster -- Long distance -- Monumental change and the power of names -- Letter to the March 15, 2019, climate strikers.

Physical Description:

182 pages : maps ; 22 cm

Genre:

Essays.

Subject Term:

Political culture -- History -- 21st century.

Feminism -- United States.

Power (Social sciences)

Geographic Term:

United States -- Politics and government -- 2017-2021.

United States -- Social life and customs -- 21st century.

Publisher:

Haymarket Books,

Publication Date:

2019

ISBN:

9781642590180

9781642591729

Publication Information:

Chicago, Illinois : Haymarket Books, 2019.

Call Number:

814 SOLNIT

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003379958	Adult Nonfiction	814 SOLNIT	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

New feminist essays for the #MeToo era from the international best-selling author of Men Explain Things to Me.

Who gets to shape the narrative of our times? The current moment is a battle royale over that foundational power, one in which women, people of color, non-straight people are telling other versions, and white people and men and particularly white men are trying to hang onto the old versions and their own centrality. In Whose Story Is This? Rebecca Solnit appraises what's emerging and why it matters and what the obstacles are.

Author Notes

Rebecca Solnit writes extensively on photography and landscape. She is a contributing editor to Art Issues and Creative Camera and is the author of three books. She has contributed essays to several museum catalogues including Crimes and Splendors: The Desert Cantos of Richard Misrach and the Whitney Museum's Beat Culture and the New America. She was a 1993 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Solnit (Hope in the Dark) highlights gains in the reframing of the American narrative in her incisive latest essay collection. The new narrative, she argues, is progressive and wider in scope, and makes room for the voices of women and people of color. In a moving open letter to Christine Blasey Ford, who testified to the Senate during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school, Solnit notes the cultural and legislative changes that came about after Anita Hill's testimony to demonstrate how the results of such an act of bravery "rippled outward in all directions." In "The Problem with Sex Is Capitalism," Solnit explores the entitlement that causes some misogynist men to become violent when denied access to women's bodies; in "If I Were a Man" she enumerates the challenges of being a woman devoted to her career in a society that still expects women to sacrifice their own ambitions in order to be a caregiver and supporter of others. The collection's standout, "A Hero Is a Disaster," suggests a reevaluation of the American ideal of "rugged individualism" to reflect the fact that America's (and the world's) problems cannot be solved by single actors, but by "movements, coalitions, civil society" working in tandem. Solnit reasserts herself here as one of the most astute cultural critics in progressive discourse. This brief but trenchant collection will please her fans. (Sept.)