A BRIEF HISTORY OF MISOGYNY (REISSUE) by Jack Holland
Jack Holland . Unknown Year . English
In this compelling, powerful book, highly respected writer and commentator Jack Holland sets out to answer a daunting question: how do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world's population by the other half, throughout history? The result takes the reader on an eye-opening journey through centuries, continents and civilizations as it looks at both historical and contemporary attitudes to women. Encompassing the Church, witch hunts, sexual theory, Nazism and pro-life campaigners, we arrive at today's developing world, where women are increasingly and disproportionately at risk because of radicalised religious belief, famine, war and disease. Well-informed and researched, highly readable and thought-provoking, this is no outmoded feminist polemic: it's a refreshingly straightforward investigation into an ancient, pervasive and enduring injustice. It deals with the fundamentals of human existence -- sex, love, violence -- that have shaped the lives of humans throughout history. The answer? It's time to recognize that the treatment of women amounts to nothing less than an abuse of human rights on an unthinkable scale. A Brief History of Misogyny is an important and timely book that will make a long-lasting contribution to the efforts to improve those rights throughout the world.
Categories: History
About the Author
My name is Jenny Holland, and I'm writing this to help get the word out about my late father's last book, "Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice." My father was Jack Holland, a well-known Irish author and journalist. He died in May 2004 shortly after completing the book. My father was from Belfast, Northern Ireland but spent much of his adult life in New York and Italy. He wrote mostly on the violence and political strife that plagued his native Northern Ireland, and became a trusted voice amid the mayhem. Among his books on the topic were the acclaimed "Hope Against History: The Course of the Conflict in Northern Ireland" (Henry Holt, 1999) and "Phoenix: Policing the Shadows" (co-author Susan Phoenix, Hodder & Stoughton, 1996) For years he wrote a beloved column for the New York-based Irish Echo, writing about everything from the old railway lines that used to criss-cross Ireland to the tangled peace process back in Belfast. In 2002 he turned his journalists eye to another torturous subject: misogyny. The end result is a gem of a book, a page-turner that is suprisingly easy to read, considering its sometimes brutal subject matter, and truly enlightening. The book has been published posthumously by Carrol & Graf. I urge everyone who has ever thought about how men and women treat each other to buy it, read it, and pass the word on!
