Resource Library
Books: Politics and Social Movements
Listed in alphabetical order by author.
A
Bella Abzug. Gender Gap: Bella Abzug’s Guide to Political Power for American Women. Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
Karen Anderson. Changing Woman: A History of Racial Ethnic Women in Modern America. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Maya Angelou. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House,1969.
Peggy Antrobus. The Global Women’s Movement. Palgrave, St. Martin’s Press, 2004.
Gloria Anzaldua. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books, 1987.
Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein. Girldrive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism. Seal Press, 2009.
Sarah Azaransky. The Dream is Freedom: Pauli Murray and American Democratic Faith. Oxford University Press, 2011.
B
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards. Manifesta:Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2000.
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards. Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005.
Jennifer Baumgardner. F’em!: Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls. Seal Press, 2011.
Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex. Vintage Press, Reissue 1989.
June M. Benowitz. Challenge and Change: Right Wing Women, Grassroots Activism, and the Baby Boom Generation. University of Florida, 2015.
Mary Francis Berry. Why ERA Failed: Politics, Women’s Rights, and the Amending Process of the Constitution. Indiana University Press, 1986.
Maylei Blackwell. Chicana Power!: Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement. University of Texas Press, 2011.
Diane Kincaid Blair. Silent Hattie Speaks: The Personal Journal of Senator Hattie Caraway. Greenwood Press, 1979.
Irene Blea. La Chicana and the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender. Praeger Publishers, 1992.
Irene Blea. U.S. Chicanas and Latinas Within a Global Context. Praeger Publishers, 1997.
Janet Boles. The Politics of the Equal Rights Amendment: Conflict and the Decision Process. Addison-Wesley Longman, 1979.
Christine Bolt. The Women’s Movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s. University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.
Anne M. Boylan. Women’s Rights in the United States: A History in Documents. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Winifred Breines. The Trouble Between Us: An Uneasy History of White and Black Women in the Feminist Movement. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Winifred Breines. Young, White, and Miserable: Growing Up Female in the Fifties. University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Victoria Bromley. Feminisms Matter: Debates, Theories, Activism. University of Toronto Press, 2012.
Anita Bryant. The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of our Nation’s Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality. F. H. Revell, 1977.
Charlotte Bunch. Passionate Politics: Feminist Theory in Action. Macmillan, 1987.
Elinor Burkett. The Right Women: A Journey Through the Heart of Conservative America. Scribner, 1998.
C
Alicia Schmidt Camacho. Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. New York University Press, 2008.
Amy Leigh Campbell. Raising the Bar: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. Xlibris, 2004.
Tamar W. Carroll. Antipoverty and Feminist Activism. University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
Rachel Carson. Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin, 1962.
Katherine Mellen Charron. Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark. University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
Shirley Chisholm. Unbought and Unbossed. Houghton Mifflin, 1970.
Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon and Astrid Henry. Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements. Liveright, 2014.
Gail Collins. When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. 2009.
Patricia Hill Collins. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, 2008.
Chris Corrin. Feminist Perspectives on Politics. Longman, 1999.
Martha Cotera. Diosa y Hembra: The History and Heritage of Chicanas in the U.S. Information Systems Development, 1976.
Martha Cotera. Chicana Feminist. Information Systems Development, 1977.
Nancy Cott. The Grounding of Modern Feminism. Yale University Press, 1987.
Donald Critchlow. Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade. Princeton University Press, 2005.
D
Mary Daly. Gyn/ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Beacon Press, 1990.
Mary Daly. Beyond God the Father. Beacon Press, 1985.
Angela Davis. Women, Race, and Class. Vintage Books, 1983.
Angela Davis. Women, Culture, and Politics. Random House, 1989.
Angela Davis. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. Pantheon Books, 1998.
Flora Davis. Moving the Mountain: The Women’s Movement in America Since 1960. University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Jane Sherron De Hart and Donald Mathews. Sex, Gender, and the Politics of ERA: A State and the Nation. Oxford University Press, 1990.
Angela Dillard. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Now: Multicultural Conservatism in America. New York University Press, 2001.
Bonnie J. Dow. Watching Women’s Liberation, 1970: Feminism’s Pivotal Year on the Network News. University of Illinois Press, 2014.
Andrea Dyrness. Mothers United: An Immigrant Struggle for Socially Just Education. University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
E
Alice Echols. Daring to be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967 - 1975. University of Minnesota Press,1989.
Anne Enke. Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism. Duke University Press, 2007.
Nora Ephron. Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women. A. A. Knopf, 1975.
Dionne Espinoza. Revolutionary Sisters: Women’s Solidarity and Collective Identification among Chicana Brown Berets in East Los Angeles, 1967 - 1970. Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, 2001.
Sara Evans. Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement & The New Left. Vintage Books, 1980.
Sara Evans. Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End. Simon & Schuster Free Press, 2003.
Judith Ezekiel. Feminism in the Heartland. Ohio State University, 2002.
F
Susan Faludi. Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women. Anchor Books, 1991.
Amy Erdman Farrell. Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism. University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp. Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York University Press, 2006.
Shulamith Firestone. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. Macmillan, 1970.
Cynthia Griggs Fleming. Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson. New York University Press, 2000.
Eleanor Flexner. Century of Struggle. Harvard University Press, 1959.
Estelle Freedman. No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women. Ballantine Books, 2002.
Jo Freeman. The Politics of Women’s Liberation. University of Chicago (Ph.D. dissertation), 1973.
Betty Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. W.W. Norton, 1963.
Natalie Fousekis. Demanding Child Care: Women’s Activism and the Politics of Welfare, 1940 - 1971. University of Illinois Press, 2011.
G
Paula Giddings. When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. William Morrow, 1984.
Tiffany M. Gill. Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women’s Activism in the Beauty Industry. University of Illinois Press, 2010.
Carole Gilligan. In a Different Voice. Harvard University Press, 1993.
Stephanie Gilmore. Groundswell: Grassroots Feminist Activism in Postwar America. Routledge, 2012.
Mary Ann Glendon. A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Random House, 2001.
Dayo F. Gore, Jeanne Theoharis, Komozi Woodard, eds. Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle. NYU Press, 2009.
Dayo F. Gore. Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War. NYU Press, 2011.
Joanne Grant. Ella Baker: Freedom Bound. Wiley, 1998.
Laurie B. Green. Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle. University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Christina Greene. Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
Susan Griffin. Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her. Harper & Row, 1978.
H
Cynthia Harrison. On Account of Sex: The Politics of Women’s Issues, 1945 - 1968. University of California Press, 1988.
Susan M. Hartmann. The Other Feminists: Activists in the Liberal Establishment. Yale University Press, 1998.
Lisa Gayle Hazirijian. The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History, 1964 - 1980. University of Georgia Press, 2011.
Anita Hill. Speaking Truth To Power. Doubleday, 1997.
Julia Butterfly Hill. The Legacy of Luna: The Story of A Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods. HarperCollins, 2000.
bell hooks. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, 1981.
Daniel Horowitz. Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism. University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
Davis Houck. Women and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954 - 1965. University Press of Mississippi, 2009.
Patricia Huckle. Tish Sommers, Activist, and the Founding of the Older Women's League. University of Tennessee Press, 1991.
J
Joy James. Race, Women, and Revolution: Black Female Militancy and the Praxis of Ella Baker. Harvard University Press, 1999.
Joy James. Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics. St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Elizabeth Janeway. Man’s World, Woman’s Place: A Study in Social Mythology. Morrow, 1971.
Karla Jay. Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation. Basic Books, 1999.
Kumari Jayawardena. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. Zed Books Ltd., 1986.
Glen Jeansonne. Women of the Far Right: The Mother’s Movement and World War II. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
K
Mary King. Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Morrow, 1987.
Rebecca Klatch. Women of the New Right. Temple University Press, 1998.
Felicia Kornbluh. The Battle for Welfare Rights: Politics and Poverty in Modern America. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
L
Robin Tolmach Lakoff. The Language War. University of California Press, 2000.
Chana Kai Lee. For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Gerda Lerner. The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History. Oxford University Press, 1979.
Joan Steinau Lester. Fire in My Soul: The Life of Eleanor Holmes Norton. Atria Books, 2004.
Lisa Levenstein. A Movement Without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia. University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
Audre Lorde. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 1984.
M
Catharine A. MacKinnon. Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law. Harvard University Press, 1987.
Catharine A. MacKinnon. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Jane Mansbridge. Why We Lost the ERA. University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Eric Marcus. Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945 - 1990: An Oral History. HarperCollins, 1992.
George Whitney Martin. Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins. Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
Mari J. Matsuda. Where is Your Body and Other Essays on Race, Gender, and the Law. Beacon Press, 1996.
Serena Mayeri. Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2011.
Erik S. McDuffie. Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Duke University Press, 2011.
Lisa McGirr. Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Princeton University Press, 2001.
Lara Medina. Las Hermanas: Chicana/Latina Religious-Political Activism in the U.S. Catholic Church. Temple University Press, 2005.
Alfredo Mirande and Evangelina Enriquez. La Chicana: The Mexican-American Woman. University of Illinois, 1979.
Anne Moody. Coming of Age in Mississippi. Dial Press, 1968.
Robin Morgan. Saturday’s Child: A Memoir. W.W. Norton, 2001.
Pauli Murray. Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet. University of Tennessee Press, 1989.
N
Nadine Naber. Arab America: Gender, Cultural Politics, and Activism. New York University Press, 2012.
Premilla Nadasen. Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States. Psychology Press, 2005.
O
Lynne Olson. Freedom’s Daughters: Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 - 1970. Scribner, 2001
Jane O’Reilly. The Girl I Left Behind: The Housewife’s Moment of Truth and Other Feminist Ravings. Macmillan Publishing, 1980.
Annelise Orleck. Storming Caesar’s Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty. Beacon Press, 2005.
Cynthia E Orozco. No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed: The Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. University of Texas Press, 2009.
P
Miriam Pawel. The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez’s Farm Worker Movement. Bloomsbury Press, 2009.
Emma Pérez. The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History. Indiana University Press, 1999.
Katha Pollitt. Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture. Random House Modern Library, 2001.
Q
Alvina E Quintana. Home Girls: Chicana Literary Voices. Temple University Press, 1996.
R
Barbara Ransby. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Belinda Robnett. How Long? How Long? African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights. Oxford University Press, 1997.
Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok. Ladies of Courage. G.P. Putnam, 1954.
Ruth Rosen. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America. Viking, 2000.
Benita Roth. Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America’s Second Wave. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Paula Rothenberg. Race, Class and Gender in the United States. Worth Publishers, 2004.
Vicki L. Ruiz and John R. Chavez. Memories and Migrations: Mapping Boricua and Chicana Histories. University of Illinois Press, 2008.
Catherine E Rymph. Republican Women: Feminism and Conservatism from Suffrage through the Rise of the New Right. University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
S
Phyllis Schlafly. The Power of the Positive Woman. Arlington House, 1977.
Debra L. Schultz. Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement. New York University Press, 2001.
Mab Segrest. Memoir of a Race Traitor. South End Press, 1994.
Laurie Shields. Displaced Homemakers: Organizing for a New Life. McGraw-Hill, 1981.
Janann Sherman. No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Megan Taylor Shockley. We, Too, Are Americans: African American Women in Detroit and Richmond, 1940 - 1954. University of Illinois Press, 2004.
Deborah Siegel. Sisterhood Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Christina Hoff Sommers. Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women. Touchstone, 1994.
Kimberly Springer. Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968 - 1980. Duke University Press, 2005.
Marjorie J. Spruill. Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women’s Rights and Family Values that Polarized American Politics. Bloomsbury, 2017.
Christine Stansell. The Feminist Promise, 1792 to the Present. Random House, 2010.
Gloria Steinem. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983
Gloria Steinem. Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. Little, Brown and Co., 1992.
Amy Swerdlow. Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s. University of Chicago Press, 1993.
T
Mary Thom. Inside Ms: 25 Years of the Magazine and the Feminist Movement. Henry Holt, 1997.
Sheila Tobias. Faces of Feminism: An Activist’s Reflections on the Women’s Movement. Westview Press, 1997.
V
Anne Valk. Radical Sisters: Second-Wave Feminism and Black Liberation in Washington, D.C. University of Illinois Press, 2008.
W
Alice Walker. The Color Purple. Harcourt, 1982.
Alice Walker. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.
Michele Wallace. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. Dial Press, 1978.
Kathleen Anne Weigand. Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women’s Liberation. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Patricia S. Williams. The Alchemy of Race and Rights. Harvard University Press, 1991.
Rhonda Y. Williams. The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Linda Witt, Karen M. Paget and Glenna Matthews. Running As A Woman: Gender and Power in American Politics. The Free Press, Simon & Schuster Inc., 1995.
Nellie Wong, Merle Woo and Mitsuye Yamada. Three Asian American Writers Speak Out on Feminism. Red Letter Press, 2003.
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1971 The Click! Moment
The idea of the “Click! moment” was coined by Jane O’Reilly. “The women in the group looked at her, looked at each other, and ... click! A moment of truth. The shock of recognition. Instant sisterhood... Those clicks are coming faster and faster. They were nearly audible last summer, which was a very angry summer for American women. Not redneck-angry from screaming because we are so frustrated and unfulfilled-angry, but clicking-things-into-place-angry, because we have suddenly and shockingly perceived the basic disorder in what has been believed to be the natural order of things.” Article, “The Housewife's Moment of Truth,” published in the first issue of Ms. Magazine and in New York Magazine. Republished in The Girl I Left Behind, by Jane O'Reilly (Macmillan, 1980). Jane O'Reilly papers, Schlesinger Library.