Revolution from Within; A Book of Self-Esteem

Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1992. First Paperback Edition [stated]. Seventh Printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Good. [10], 421, [1] pages. Occasional footnotes. Appendix (Mediation Guide and Bibliotherapy). Notes. Index. Cover has some wear and soiling. Some page wear and discoloration. Signed by the author on half title. Gloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist, journalist, and social political activist, who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She is listed in Who's Who in America. Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine, and a co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, Steinem published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation", which brought her to national fame as a feminist leader. In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that works "to make women visible and powerful in the media". Steinem currently travels internationally as an organizer and lecturer, and is a media spokeswoman on issues of equality. Derived from a Kirkus review: Steinem's inwardly turned examination of how men and women sabotage themselves by suppressing the ``child within'' is insightful. Her reflections on her own and others' spiritual struggles may give a new generation of activists pause for further reflection. In the wake of Ms. magazine's sale and her own resignation as its editor, Steinem found herself, she says, with the time and inspiration to write a book she'd had in mind for years--a study of the psychological and societal factors that negatively influence self-esteem. Recounting her own early life as the daughter of a factory worker who divorced his mentally ill wife when Gloria was only ten, Steinem details the natural progression from a co-dependent relationship with her mother to an unconscious adult sense of being ``co-dependent with the world.'' Forced by her need to wall off her past, she led a life of outer-world confrontations until, through therapy undertaken as research for her book, she began to master her ``inner child.'' By including others' tales of self- actualization through a ``revolution from within''--the creation of a winning chess team in Spanish Harlem, the transformation of a housewife into an entrepreneur, etc.--Steinem illustrates how others' psychic journeys may lead in much different directions than her own. Still, much of what is recommended here will strike many as old hat--and, in the end, more interesting as an update on the feminist's life than as a practical aid to others. A piquant counterpoint to recently revitalized, outer-directed feminism.