Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The first history--incisive, witty, fascinating--of the fight against sexual harassment, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Sisters in LawIn Reckoning, Linda Hirshman, acclaimed historian of social change movements, delivers the sweeping story of the struggle leading up to #MeToo and beyond: from the first stories of workplace harassment percolating to the surface in the 1970s; to the fulcrum of Clinton/Lewinsky, when a forgiving Gloria Steinem "swerved" so that, according to Hirshman, "for two decades most liberal men in the Democratic party didn't take feminists seriously." Legal liberals even resisted the movement to end rape on campus. And then came Harvey Weinstein and the reckoning.
Hirshman tells the full story of the legal cases that have quietly prepared the way for the takedown of the abusers and harassers of the workplace, and holds up African American women as having taken some of the most important stands against sexual harassment over the past fifty years. Finally, Reckoning shines fascinating light on how our watershed #MeToo moment has come from pioneering women in the new media.
Reckoning is a movement-defining, revelatory, essential social history.
Synopsis
The first history--incisive, witty, fascinating--of the fight against sexual harassment, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Sisters in Law Linda Hirshman, acclaimed historian of social movements, delivers the sweeping story of the struggle leading up to #MeToo and beyond: from the first tales of workplace harassment percolating to the surface in the 1970s, to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal--when liberal women largely forgave Clinton, giving men a free pass for two decades. Many liberals even resisted the movement to end rape on campus.
And yet, legal, political, and cultural efforts, often spearheaded by women of color, were quietly paving the way for the takedown of abusers and harassers. Reckoning delivers the stirring tale of a movement catching fire as pioneering women in the media exposed the Harvey Weinsteins of the world, women flooded the political landscape, and the walls of male privilege finally began to crack. This is revelatory, essential social history.