In Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy, historian Elizabeth Gillespie McRae makes a strong argument for white women’s vital role in protecting and perpetuating white supremacy and thwarting integration in the US. One hundred years ago, woman began to organize in ways that we would recognize from today’s resistance movements. They developed grassroots campaigns reaching out to other women and encouraging them to organize, to write letters, to publish, to speak up and to vote. They did this, however, […]
An Epic About Resistance
Circe is a fascinating and creative imagining of the life of Circe, a character mentioned in The Odyssey as one of Odysseus’ lovers on his travels from the Trojan War back home. In The Odyssey, Circe is a witch who turns Odysseus’ men into pigs but is then herself bested and tamed by Odysseus (with help from Hermes). In Circe, when Circe hears how the bards sing of her, she thinks, Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can […]
Women & Espionage in the World Wars
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is an ambitious work of historical fiction that straddles two world wars and their aftermath, and that shines a light on the heroic work of female spies. Quinn uses a solid base of historical fact and real people to create her fictional heroine Eve (aka Evelyn Gardiner, aka Marguerite Le Francois), a spy for England in WWI who made shattering sacrifices and has never healed from her tragic and brutal experiences. Eve is an alcoholic recluse when, in the […]
Another tale of brave teenagers in time of war
Girl in the Blue Coat won the 2017 Edgar Award for Best YA Mystery and is one of the most thrilling and engaging books I have read in a while. I started this book one afternoon and tore through 200 pages in no time, and I couldn’t wait to finish the last 100 pages the next day. Set in 1943 Amsterdam, Girl in the Blue Coat tells the story of Hanneke Bakker, an 18-year-old girl who is trying her best to support her parents and […]