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WorksDorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits
Although many did not know her name until now, everyone knows her iconic photos, especially "Migrant Mother" with her three children. Dorothea Lange was a complex and passionate woman--passionate about her photography and in her love life. She faced down limits--her disability from childhood polio and the constraints placed on women in her era--to become a great artist and one of the shapers of modern documentary photography. As we follow Lange's life we are plunged into many of the most intense episodes of 20th-century America: the "bohemian" cultures of New York and San Francisco; the Great Depression of the 1930s; the hopes engendered by FDR's New Deal; the all-out effort of World War II; the impact of McCarthyism on the arts; and finally US foreign aid strategies, as Lange photographed throughout Asia. The book is available in paperback. From the reviews: "It takes uncommon insight and self-awareness to write this persuasively about a taciturn woman of labyrinthine complexity. Gordon leaves us to ponder bigger questions about the value and meaning of art ... and about the exquisite ordinariness that resides deep in the heart of our least ordinary fellow humans." Chicago Tribune "Linda Gordon's absorbing biography ... should be popping up on lists of 2009's best books." (It was.) USA Today "Gordon's moving, intelligent portrait of an artist who set the standard for every socially concerned photographer ..." Los Angeles Times "... masterly biography ..." Elle "... captures Lange's complexities in context, as few other biographers are likely to do." American Prospect "Gordon's elegant biography is a testament to Lange's gift for challenging her country to open its eyes." New York Times "The Perils of Innocence, or What’s Wrong with Putting Children First"
available at http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_youth_and_childhood/v001/1.3.gordon01.pdf "The New Deal Was a Good Idea, We Should Try It"
available at http://hnn.us/articles/80896.html Heroes of Their Own Lives: The Politics and History of Family Violence
Responding to the "discovery" of child abuse in the 1870s, child-protection agencies were soon pulled ito cases of wife-beating and sexual abuse as well. Heroes of Their Own Lives tells the story through many actual case histories, and thereby promotes understanding of current family-violence problems. Dear Sisters: Dispatches from the Women's Liberation Movement, with Rosalyn Baxandall
As feisty and exciting as the women's liberation movement itself, Dear Sisters is full of surprises. Linda K. Kerber "Dear Sisters will be a boon to historians, and a pleasurable, inspiring read for everyone. Howard Zinn The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
Winner of the Bancroft prize for best book in US history. Winner of the Beveridge prize for best book in the history of the Americas. … emotionally gripping and frequently amusing account of "the great Arizona orphan abduction" is a good read…. a fine example of "nonfiction narrative" or "narrative nonfiction.” The Moral Property of Women: The History of Birth Control Politics in America
Every known society has used some form of reproduction control, but in the last 150 years the practice became contested, because it evokes fundamental disagreements about women’s rights and sexual freedom. This book remains the definitive historical explanation of that controversy. From the reviews: "Myriad brilliant books and articles on the history of contraception and abortion have appeared ... but none offers as comprehensive ... wide-ranging and invigorating a historical analysis ..." The Historian "not merely an historical interpretation of the politics of birth control, but a history of sexuality ..." Archives of Sexual Behavior "... an invaluable resource ...reminds us that women's bodies remain battlefields crossed by the ideological and property relations of the societies in which we live." Science and Society IMPOUNDED: Dorothea Lange’s Censored Photographs of the Japanese American Internment during World War II, co-authored with Gary Okihiro
In 1942 the US interned 120,000 Japanese Americans. None had been charged with any crime, and approximately 2/3 were US citizens, yet they were imprisoned for the length of the war without hearings. Although the Army hired her, they impounded her photographs, considering them too critical. From the reviews: "Lange offers us a careful demonstration of the way prejudice, masked by patriotism, can lead to enormous injustice." Chicago Tribune "...as profoundly human as it is heartbreaking ..." Austin Chronicle "This book is important... for the light it throws on a shameful moment in American history and for the light it throws on Dorothea Lange." Japan Times "... These photographs are deeply subversive, showing the quiet dignity of individuals and families ..." Columbia Journalism Review "... offers a crucial insight into the structure of Lange's photographic project ..." Women's Review of Books "... a testament to the historical and cultural significance of the photographs ... and the insight with which the editors probe their history." Journal of Asian Studies |
