Synopses & Reviews
Waterboarding. Sleep deprivation. Sensory manipulation. Stress positions. Over the last several years, these and other methods of torture have become garden variety words for practically anyone who reads about current events in a newspaper or blog. We know exactly what they are, how to administer them, and, disturbingly, that they were secretly authorized by the Bush Administration in its efforts to extract information from people detained in its war on terror. What we lack, however, is a larger lens through which to view America's policy of torture — one that dissects America's long relationship with interrogation and torture, which roots back to the 1950s and has been applied, mostly in secret, to “enemies,” ever since. How did America come to embrace this practice so fully, and how was it justified from a moral, legal, and psychological perspective?
The United States and Torture opens with a compelling preface by Sister Dianna Ortiz, who describes the unimaginable treatment she endured in Guatemala in 1987 at the hands of the the Guatemalan government, which was supported by the United States. Then a psychologist, a historian, a political scientist, a philosopher, a sociologist, two journalists, and eight lawyers offer one of the most comprehensive examinations of torture to date, beginning with the CIA during the Cold War era and ending with today's debate over accountability for torture.
Ultimately, this gripping, interdisciplinary work details the complicity of the United States government in the torture and cruel treatment of prisoners both at home and abroad and discusses what can be done to hold those who set the torture policy accountable.
Contributors: Marjorie Cohn, Richard Falk, Marc D. Falkoff, Terry Lynn Karl, John W. Lango, Jane Mayer, Alfred W. McCoy, Jeanne Mirer, Sister Dianna Ortiz, Jordan J. Paust, Bill Quigley, Michael Ratner, Thomas Ehrlich Reifer, Philippe Sands, Stephen Soldz, and Lance Tapley.
Review
“A vibrant collection of classic and recent essays in American Jewish womens history that form the perfect starting point toexplore this burgeoning field. From the feminist politics of kosher meat boycotts and garment union organizing to the Jewish dimensions of modern dance and teenage diaries, this readable volume reveals the breadth and excitement of American Jewish women's history.”
-Deborah Dash Moore,co-editor of Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia
Review
“An impressive compendium of essays, American Jewish Women's History paints a broad and diverse portrait of American Jewish women. Written by some of the most incisive historians of the American Jewish community, the chapters examine Jewish women in many different venues: the home and the marketplace, religious and secular institutions, and picket lines and cultural institutions.”
-Deborah E. Lipstadt,Emory University
Review
“Nadell makes explicit the diverse roles and experiences of Jewish women in the United States.”
-History Reviews of New Books,
Review
“This anthology conveys the breadth of the historical experiences of American Jewish women.”
-Jewish Advocate,
Review
“It's a thought-provoking book that should be read by women and men alike.”
-Booklist,
Review
“A vibrant collection of classic and recent essays in American Jewish womens history that form the perfect starting point to explore this burgeoning field. From the feminist politics of kosher meat boycotts and garment union organizing to the Jewish dimensions of modern dance and teenage diaries, this readable volume reveals the breadth and excitement of American Jewish women's history.”
- Deborah Dash Moore, co-editor of Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia
“An impressive compendium of essays, American Jewish Women's History paints a broad and diverse portrait of American Jewish women. Written by some of the most incisive historians of the American Jewish community, the chapters examine Jewish women in many different venues: the home and the marketplace, religious and secular institutions, and picket lines and cultural institutions.”
- Deborah E. Lipstadt, Emory University
“Nadell makes explicit the diverse roles and experiences of Jewish women in the United States.”
- History Reviews of New Books
“This anthology conveys the breadth of the historical experiences of American Jewish women.”
- Jewish Advocate
“It's a thought-provoking book that should be read by women and men alike.”
- Booklist
Review
"An excellent addition to the cannon of work relating to the post-9/11 embrace of torture by the Bush Administration as well as the subsequent erosion of constitutional and international legal principles."-Adam L. Kress,Law and Politics Book Review
Review
"This gripping collection of essays explores how the United States has used torture both domestically and abroad since the 1950s . . . Strongly recommended to any reader interested in developing a deeper understanding of the government's torture policies."-Rachel Bridgewater,Library Journal
Review
"The United States of Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse is an interdiciplinary work detailing U.S. participation in torture and cruel treatment of prisoners both at home and abroad and discusses what can be done to hold those who set the torture policy accountable." -,Z Magazine
Review
"If this collection of authoritative and proficient essays does not convince every reader that key Bush officials and their lawyers should be prosecuted, it leaves no doubt that probable cause exists to justify the Justice Department opening a series of comprehensive investigations with ample resources and subpoena power to determine whether such crimes were committed and whether indictments should be issued...Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and anyone who cares about restoring respect for the Rule of Law in America should first read The United States and Torture, and then do the right thing." -Stephen F. Rohde,The Los Angeles Daily Journal
Review
“Because whistleblowers leaked the Abu Ghraib photos and some of the torture memos, the torture and abuse committed by the United States entered the national discourse. This book is the result of those efforts and this critical work by leading scholars and journalists who courageously provide a roadmap for holding Bush officials accountable for their war crimes.”
-Daniel Ellsberg,author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Synopsis
“It gives me a secret pleasure to observe the fair character our family has in the place by Jews and Christians,“Abigail Levy Franks wrote to her son from New York City in 1733. Abigail was part of a tiny community of Jews living in the new world. In the centuries that followed, as that community swelled to several millions, women came to occupy diverse and changing roles.
American Jewish Womens History, an anthology covering colonial times to the present, illuminates that historical diversity. It shows women shaping Judaism and their American Jewish communities as they engaged in volunteer activities and political crusades, battled stereotypes, and constructed relationships with their Christian neighbors. It ranges from Rebecca Gratzs development of the Jewish Sunday School in Philadelphia in 1838 to protest the rising prices of kosher meat at the turn of the century, to the shaping of southern Jewish women's cultural identity through food. There is currently no other reader conveying the breadth of the historical experiences of American Jewish women available.
The reader is divided into four sections complete with detailed introductions. The contributors include: Joyce Antler, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Alice Kessler-Harris, Paula E. Hyman, Riv-Ellen Prell, and Jonathan D. Sarna.
About the Author
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. Her books include Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent. The 2008 recipient of the Peace Scholar of the Year Award, she has testified before Congress about Bush Administration torture policy.
Table of Contents
Portraits of a community: the image and experience of early American Jews / Ellen Smith -- The lessons of the Hebrew Sunday school / Dianne Ashton -- A great awakening: the transformation that shaped twentieth-century American Judaism / Jonathan D. Sarna -- Gone to another meeting: the National Council of Jewish Women, 1893-1993 / Faith Rogow -- Borrowers or lenders be: Jewish immigrant women's credit networks / Shelly Tenenbaum -- "We dug more rocks": women and work / Linda Mack Schloff -- Organizing the unorganizable: three Jewish women and their union / Alice Kessler-Harris -- Immigrant women and consumer protest: the New York City kosher meat boycott of 1902 / Paula E. Hyman -- Zion in our hearts: Henrietta Szold and the American Jewish Women's movement / Joyce Antler -- The Jewish priestess and ritual: the sacred life of American Orthodox women / Jenna Weissman Joselit -- The women who would be rabbis / Pamela S. Nadell -- Budgets, boycotts, and babies: Jewish women in the great depression / Beth S. Wenger -- Angels "Rewolt!": Jewish women in modern dance in the 1930s / Julia L. Foulkes -- The "me" of me: voices of Jewish girls in adolescent diaries of the 1920s and 1950s / Joan Jacobs Brumberg -- Rage and representation: Jewish gender stereotypes in American culture / Riv-Ellen Prell -- "From the recipe file of Luba Cohen": a study of southern Jewish foodways and cultural identity / Marcie Cohen Ferris -- Going south: Jewish women in the civil rights movement / Debra L. Schultz -- Jewish feminism faces the American women's movement: convergence and divergence / Paula E. Hyman.