Synopses & Reviews
As recently as 1915, when the legendary scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem sought to find someoneanyoneto teach him Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah was largely neglected and treated with disdain. Today, this field has ripened to the point that it occupies a central place in the agenda of contemporary Judaic studies.
While there are many definitions of Kabbalah, this volume focuses on the discrete body of literature which developed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The basis for most of this kabbalistic literature is the concept of the ten sefirot, the complex schema depicting the divine persona, and speculation about the inner life of God. It maintains the conviction that all human action reverberates in the world of the sefirot, and thus influences the life of divinity. Proper action helps to restore harmony and unity to the world of God, while improper action reinforces the breach within God brought about originally through human transgression.
Collected here in one volume are some of the most central essays published on the subject. The selections provide the reader with a sense of the historical range of Kabbalah, as well as examples of various kinds of approaches, including those of intellectual and social history, history and phenomenology of religions, motif studies, ritual studies, and women's studies. Sections discuss mystical motifs and theological ideas, mystical leadership and personalities, and devotional practices and mystical experiences.
Review
“Hegarty . . . uncover[s] a complex picture. . . . This study . . . significantly enhances our understanding of the World War II period in the United States.”
-Journal of American History,
Review
Offers a fresh perspective on the construction of gender roles during wartime by examining the experience of women who performed moral-maintaining, or as she terms the, sexualized services during World War II.”
-Military Review,
Review
“Hegarty conducted excellent research in Social Protection Division archives, popular magazines, professional journals, and numerous other wartime materials.”
-Choice,
Review
“The strength of Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes is [Hegartys] delving deep into bureaucratic files, piecing together the Federal and state U.S. officials steps toward, and thinking behind, mobilizing and controlling American womens sexuality.”
-Cynthia Enloe,author of The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire
Review
“Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes offers a substantive and complex narrative of the sweeping and multiple constraints on female sexuality during World War II. Hegartys study is the best since Allan Brandts epic work in its nuanced attention to the process by which female sexuality—deemed both necessary and suspect—was harnessed in service to the state, while female sexual desire and women's choices to engage in heterosexual activity remained unspeakable and became critical targets for containment during and after the war. This is a provocative and compelling book.”
-Leisa D. Meyer,author of Creating G. I. Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women's Army Corps During World War II
Synopsis
An essential volume of 12th to 17th century papers on the Jewish mysticism of Kabbalah
As recently as 1915, when the legendary scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem sought to find someone--anyone--to teach him Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah was largely neglected and treated with disdain. Today, this field has ripened to the point that it occupies a central place in the agenda of contemporary Judaic studies.
While there are many definitions of Kabbalah, this volume focuses on the discrete body of literature which developed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The basis for most of this kabbalistic literature is the concept of the ten sefirot, the complex schema depicting the divine persona, and speculation about the inner life of God. It maintains the conviction that all human action reverberates in the world of the sefirot, and thus influences the life of divinity. Proper action helps to restore harmony and unity to the world of God, while improper action reinforces the breach within God brought about originally through human transgression.
Collected here in one volume are some of the most central essays published on the subject. The selections provide the reader with a sense of the historical range of Kabbalah, as well as examples of various kinds of approaches, including those of intellectual and social history, history and phenomenology of religions, motif studies, ritual studies, and women's studies. Sections discuss mystical motifs and theological ideas, mystical leadership and personalities, and devotional practices and mystical experiences.
Synopsis
Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes offers a counter-narrative to the story of Rosie the Riveter, the icon of female patriotism during World War II. With her fist defiantly raised and her shirtsleeves rolled up, Rosie was an asexual warrior on the homefront. But thousands of women supported the war effort not by working in heavy war industries, but by providing morale-boosting services to soldiers, ranging from dances at officers' clubs to more blatant forms of sexual services, such as prostitution.
While the de-sexualized Rosie was celebrated, women who used their sexuality—either intentionally or inadvertently—to serve their country encountered a contradictory morals campaign launched by government and social agencies, which shunned female sexuality while valorizing masculine sexuality. This double-standard was accurately summed up by a government official who dubbed these women“patriotutes”: part patriot, part prostitute.
Marilyn E. Hegarty explores the dual discourse on female sexual mobilization that emerged during the war, in which agencies of the state both required and feared womens support for, and participation in, wartime services. The equation of female desire with deviance simultaneously over-sexualized and desexualized many women, who nonetheless made choices that not only challenged gender ideology but defended their right to remain in public spaces.
About the Author
Marilyn (Lyn) E. Hegarty teaches American History, Women's History, and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University.