Betty Friedan and the making of The feminine mystique
Subtitle: the American left, the cold war, and modern feminism
By: Daniel Horowitz.
Series: Culture, politics, and the cold war
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Amherst
Language: eng
Number of pages: 354
Subjects: Friedan, Betty.; Feminists -- United States -- Biography.; Feminism -- United States.; United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century.
Description: Drawing on an impressive body of new research - including Friedan's own papers - Horowitz traces the development of Friedan's feminist outlook from her childhood in Peoria, Illinois, through her wartime years at Smith College and Berkeley, to her decade-long career as a writer for two of the period's most radical labor journals, the Federated Press and the United Electrical Workers' UE News.

He further shows that even after she married and began to raise a family, Friedan continued during the 1950s to write and work on behalf of a wide range of progressive social causes. By resituating Friedan within a broader cultural context, and by offering a fresh reading of The Feminine Mystique against that background, Horowitz not only overturns conventional ideas about "second-wave" feminism but also reveals long submerged links to its past.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.