The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America

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Summary: Very interesting read
Review: Finally, we have a book to make the women's movement make sense for those too young, too unaware, or too biased to appreciate its enormous impact on America. Rosen's style is approachable without losing its analytical rigor. Her research brilliantly documents the movement's factions, "leaders," victories, failures,and issues. While _Split Open_ is a tour-de-force through the 1970s, I found its treatment of the anti-feminist backlash too superficial - although, unlike one reviewer here, I would not chracterize this as bias, so much as a decision to remain focused on the movement rather than its detractors.

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Summary: A Changed American Male Reports a MUST READ!
Review: Rosen, a historian, professor, activist and journalist brings the wisdoms of her personal and professional experiences to bear upon the modern Women's Movement. The result is a refreshing, candid, almost conversational accounting and chronicle, as well as an astute and careful analysis of the many impacts and consequences of the movement for American life. The numerous interviews with both known and unknown leaders of the movement are captured with such precision that at times you feel you are there. When Rosen then moves toward grounding these voices in the larger social-cultural-political contexts of the times, we begin to really experience the extent and depth of the Movement not only for American life but for life as we know it.

This is a must read for anyone wanting to better understand not only the modern Women's Movement, but themselves. As a psychotherapist, educator and social worker at the University of Michigan, I work daily with those struggling with their roles and identities. I think this is an excellent resource for helping women (and men) understand their personal struggles in context, which as Rosen's title so aptly puts it, makes "The World Split Open", and thus the personal truly political.

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Summary: The World Did Split Open When I read this book
Review: Ruth Rosen's idea of a legitimate source is Andrea Dworkin....

Unfortunately, this book is not a history; it is a polemic. Rosen makes no attempt whatever to be impartial either in her writing or her choice of sources and there is not a left-wing cause that she fails to support. Rosen is perhaps the only person in America who still believes that the "Welfare Rights" movement was a positive force, that Stokely Carmichael was "only joking" when he said that the position of women in the Civil Rights movement is "prone", and the Fannie Lou Hamer would have made an effective Senator.

To Rosen, no one who disagrees with her positions does so reasonably or legitimately. Phyllis Schafly "rants", Midge Decter "published a diatribe", and feminists who disagreed with Gloria Steinam "resented her beauty and glamour".

There is legitimate information to be found in "The World Split Open" that has not been presented elsewhere and Rosen is a pleasant writer. However, Rosen's deep biases make it impossible to trust her presentation of the evidence. One day, we should all hope, a feminist will write a fair and honest history of this movement which has changed the lives of so many.

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Summary: Finally, it all makes sense....
Review: The myth is that the American women's movement was the domain of upper-echelon white women who wanted it all--exciting sex, prestigious careers, brilliant children they didn't have to take care of--and that working women, especially those of color, rejected it as irrelelvant to their lives. In fact, as Ruth Rosen's excellent book shows, women from many walks of life took part in a multi-faceted movement that has brought remarkable changes and helped all women.

This book about women also describes the sweep of US social movements, including civil rights, over the past 50 years. I found the chapters tracing the rise and fall of the New Left in the 1960s fascinating. It's well known that women who went south to help with voter-registration drives were put down by their male co-workers. Less known is the influence on them of black women activists they met there. Seeing "the remarkable clout black women wielded in their churches and civic organizations," white women later used them as role models for grassroots organizing in northern cities. In Students for a Democratic Society, men wrote theoretical papers on how to revamp society and women mimeographed them--and ran the offices, gaining administrative skills. By 1969, says Rosen, the New Left "was in tatters" while the women's movement took off in the 1970s--and is still going strong.

"The World Split Open" gives a comprehensive view of the women's movement, filling in important events that the media ignored in favor of the sensational. For people in other countries, it also provides a well-researched, readable account of American movements for social justice over the past half-century, centered around the experiences of women. This is a book to read now, and keep on your referrence shelf.

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Summary: Professor Rosen Documents American Women's Movement
Review: This book explores the history of the women's movement in the 20th century. Although many books have been written on the first wave of feminism, this book deals with the second wave--written by a real pioneer in the field of women's history. The World Split Open shows how rights possessed by women today were almost non-existent less than fifty years ago. Although women gained the right to vote in the early part of the twentieth century, this book shows how far women still had (and still do have) to go. Ruth Rosen is an amazing person (I was a student in her women's history course at UC Davis last year), and I highly recomend this book to those interested in the study of not only women, but the American family as a whole. Further, I challenge anyone who sees "feminists" in a negative light to read this book and thus have their assumptions proven false.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful read!
Review: This book explores the history of the women's movement in the 20th century. Although many books have been written on the first wave of feminism, this book deals with the second wave--written by a real pioneer in the field of women's history. The World Split Open shows how rights possessed by women today were almost non-existent less than fifty years ago. Although women gained the right to vote in the early part of the twentieth century, this book shows how far women still had (and still do have) to go. Ruth Rosen is an amazing person (I was a student in her women's history course at UC Davis last year), and I highly recomend this book to those interested in the study of not only women, but the American family as a whole. Further, I challenge anyone who sees "feminists" in a negative light to read this book and thus have their assumptions proven false.

Rating:
Summary: Professor Rosen Documents American Women's Movement
Review: With great insight in text and pictures, this book is a must read for every woman in our world today. The American women's movement shows how rights were won for women in a democracy. This book is a guide for others who seek these same rights. America has come so far and women need to know of the sacrifices that were made by many women (and men) to achieve this freedom for their lives. Professor Rosen makes sure all who read this book will know, and be given the opportunity to return something for this wonderful gift American women have been given.