The Wisdom of Solitude: A Zen Retreat in the Woods

Book Description

The whole idea of being alone had always intrigued me, yet at the same time scared me half to death. Being alone would mean no human contact, no talking, no going to work, paying bills, running errands, or doing any of the usual things I spent so much energy on. What would that be like? Who would I find there, underneath all the layers of social conditioning, obligations, rules, and cultural filters? Would I even like this person? It seemed the best way to find out would be to follow the traditional monastic schedule of sitting, walking, chanting, bowing, and cutting wood for one hundred days.

-- from the Introduction

Inspired by her Korean Zen master's discipline of long, solitary retreats, Jane Dobisz strikes out to a lone cabin in the countryside of New England, armed with nothing but determination, modest food supplies, and an intensely regimented daily practice schedule. The unfolding story of her experience is threaded through with Zen teachings and striking insights into the miracles and foibles of the human mind when left to its own devices, with little distraction at hand.

Both entertaining and inspiring, The Wisdom of Solitude offers a poignant testament to the benefits that reflection and retreat of any duration bring to our lives.

Customer Reviews:

A reassuring book for current Zen practicioners - not for newbies.......2005-09-20

Maybe you've been in a similar situation:

I was talking with a Zen monk, lamenting how I don't think I'll have enough vacation time from work to participate in an upcoming 7-day retreat. I also said I wasn't sure if I could deal with day after day of formal practices, especially the long sitting meditation. I didn't even know what I'm supposed to get out of such a long period of formal practice. The monk told me there's a Zen Master in our school who recently wrote a good book about her experience with a solo retreat that would probably answer my questions and also alleviate some of my concerns.

I picked up this book and I was immediately relieved that it's not very long - I'm not a fast reader, yet I still finished it in a couple hours. Her style is easy to read and digest, and it's broken into small chapters only a couple pages long. It reads like a journal, and as such, it's all about her thoughts and feelings while experiencing her solo retreat. And while Jane Dobisz is a Zen Master (her Zen name is Bon Yeon), it was incredibly heartening to read that she experiences many of the same seemingly low-class problems (in Zen-speak) that novice practicioners like me have. She comes across as a very "real" person, and her insights are easy to understand and appreciate.

I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who is new to Zen and wants to learn about it - it contains many Zen references and there are other books written specifically for beginners. And I wouldn't recommend this book to someone looking for a "how to" guide for planning a solo retreat - she doesn't discuss all the logistics, options for different ways of doing it, etc. And I don't consider those to be faults - it simply isn't want this book is about.

After I finished reading this, I felt relieved, elated, and best of all - I felt even more motivated to practice! And that's the greatest thing about this book. I sometimes fall into the Zen-sickness of reading a lot about Zen instead of practicing Zen. And by it's nature, Zen cannot be attained by studying alone - there are countless stories of scholarly sutra masters who were humbled by wise practicioners. Usually, reading a book about Zen just makes my mind "sicker", leaving me with even more questions and leading me to check myself and my practice even more than before. But this book - this book made me feel more confident about my practice than ever before.

That's all I can say, and I've probably said too much already. I hope this helps.

Taming the Tigers Stalking in Your Mind.......2004-10-02

The sounds of the woods are varied and natural. The buzz in my head gives way over time to the cold creaking of branches, the soft slumping of snow melting off the roof, the chickadee's song. A silver pail as it hits the water in the well with a metallic splash. The rope on its rusty pulley as I pull it back up. The crunching of snow under my boots as I haul it back to the cabin. ~Jane Dobisz

The thought of escaping to a cabin in the woods has a great deal of appeal, especially if there is a well-stocked refrigerator, plenty of chocolate cupcakes, hot chocolate and of course a hot lover and a hot tub. Let us not even mention the bliss of skiing.

Now, when Jane Dobisz decides to escape to a Zen retreat, chocolate, love and skiing are the last things on her mind. In fact, the only eye contact she makes during this trip is with a mouse, which is quite humorous. Not only does Jane Dobisz decide to leave society for 100 Days, she also decides to follow a traditional monastic schedule of sitting, walking, chanting, bowing and cutting wood. She decides to practice Zen for 18 hours a day.

In the first few pages I laughed more times than I can count. Jane Dobisz alternates between a conversational style, vibrant descriptions, lyrical prose and splashes of humor that catch you unawares. The first few lines of the first chapter captured my interest. Why would a woman want to strand herself in a cabin in New England? Here she has no electricity, phone or car. She must learn to tame the tigers in her mind and deal with her fears (there is no lock on the door), and learn basic survival skills. She throws herself into her own experiment like a true mystery seeker.

Through isolation, the author learns to not only deal with her loneliness, she finds her inner Henry David Thoreau. The part of herself that longs for simplicity and a clarity obtained from wandering in nature. She shows courage in trying again when things don't work out the first time, she finds beauty in the smallest of pleasures and indulges in rituals like bathing and meditation. This is really a book about experience and is not so much a book of "how-to instructions for a retreat" as it is an explanation and poetic description of Jane Dobisz's experiences.

At times the author struggles with the dicipline of mantras as her mind drifts off to visions of pumpkin pie. She at times desires nothing else than to escape back to her home and familiar environment.

Questions not answered by this book include:

How did her family cope with her 100 Day retreat?
How did she find time to cook on such a rigorous schedule?
The exact way to "bow" and "sit." Details are not given for the monastic schedule and
I think a class in meditation and yoga is probably in order if you are considering your own retreat.

Jane Dobisz is the guiding teacher of the Cambridge Zen Center in Massachusetts and is also the editor of The Whole World is a Single Flower by Seung Sahn.

For some reason, I thought this while reading this book: One of the greatest ways to love a person may be to encourage their highest good. Jane Dobisz's friends and family seem to encourage her higher good by encouraging her to develop her spiritual side and they give her the gift of an adventure by dropping her off in the woods and then returning to find out if she is still alive. She does not communicate with anyone during this time, although she could have walked to a nearby phone.

I read this book early in the morning and felt a deep connection with the author when suddenly, my husband opened the front door when I was reading: "As I open the door to the porch, my heart stops." A fresh burst of cold morning air rushed down the hallways and I suddenly understood why she said: "Why not let that kind of joy into all the little things, like smelling the air...washing the dishes....Isn't that what our whole life is? Joy comes from appreciation."

You may find yourself writing poems while reading this book, planning for a winter vacation or simply have the desire to read a number of the books mentioned throughout this heart-warming read. Perfect for reading in the morning, especially in the Fall with a window open.

~TheRebeccaReview.com

A real gem!.......2004-09-10

Every day is a good day. That's the feeling I came away with after reading this book. Dobisz weaves together her own experiences in the woods with the teachings that brought her there for a solo hundred day retreat. Her language is simple and clear and is as refreshing as a swim in a pond on a very hot day. This is a book to dip into again and again. The best "Zen" I've read in a long, long time.

Brain Food.......2004-09-10

In this world of materialism and the quick fix, it is refreshing to read of a young woman who has the courage to seek what matters in life, at some great cost of time and hardship. That she could accomplish this retreat is the most remarkable thing, still to relate it to others in a way that is enjoyable and provides good food for thought for any thinking person is also wonderful. I read many types of books, and can recommend this book as well worth buying and reading, very enjoyable and enlightening at the same time. Well done.

Waste of time and money.......2004-09-09

Sorry, but I did not like the book. Once you remove the numerous quotes, the explications of their meanings and the daily life routine, there is very little else left of value. It does get very funny though when she completely misses the teachings of some stories and quotes, like the Nasrudin one or "the utmost master" one! The quest for oneself comes from within and the fact that she needs to rely on other sources to convey her experience is suspiscious.
She also does not see that when she decides to fast, it is a trick of her mind that distracts her for 3 weeks and keeps her away from herself.
My favorite bedside books are Rumi's, Idries Shah's, Anthony De Mello's, talks with Sri Nisargadata Maharaj (I am THAT), "Zen mind beginner's mind", "The Way to Life" by Benjamin Hoff, "Great Fool" by Zen Master Ryokan, "Teachings of the buddha", "The Buddha speaks" and the "Bhagavad Gita". "The wisdom of solitude" pales in comparison just because it is not the real thing. It is mostly mind oriented and has some hidden motives.

Amazon.com

If the subtitle of this delicious collection of Yogi-isms has you scratching your head, it has done its job as stunningly as Berra used to do his behind the plate at Yankee Stadium. The Hall of Fame MVP catcher for the pinstriped dynasties of the late 1940s through the '50s and into the '60s, Berra was about as quick with his witticisms as he was with his bat and glove. But if his observations hit the heart of the plate, his grammar tended to pop out of left field, hence the creation of a unique mode of malapropism dubbed the Yogi-ism. To truly understand the title, you need to know that not every mot ascribed to Yogi actually emanated from his mouth--they only sounded like they should have. Thus, he really didn't say everything he said, which makes The Yogi Book absolutely necessary (see page 10).

To the things that Yogi did say, The Yogi Book does both service and justice. It gathers the witticisms in a single convenient volume, adds a scrapbook of photos, then lets their progenitor riff, filling in color commentary on what was happening beyond his mind and what was going through it when the famous phrases were dispatched into the public domain. He deservedly takes credit for such immortal pronunciamentos as "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." (page 16); "It's deja vu all over again." (page 30); "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." (page 48); "The future ain't what it used to be." (page 118); "It gets late early out there." (page 64); and "Ninety percent of this game is half mental." (page 69). All, like the sacred texts they happen to be, are appropriately parsed for your edification, as is the greatest Yogi-ism of them all: "It ain't over 'til it's over." (page 121).

Book Description

It's deja vu all over again! And just in time for Father's Day. Announcing a hardcover edition of the 300,000-plus -copy national bestseller that has baseball fans everywhere saying "It ain't over 'til it's over" and "90% of the game is half mental" and "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." A $12.95 jacketed edition that ships in time for Father's Day, The Yogi Book is a perfect gift for sports fans, quote book collectors, lovers of pop culture and Americana, and everyone who ever knew exactly what Yogi meant by You can observe a lot by watching.

Customer Reviews:

Yogi Berra Book.......2007-01-12

It is a very short book, with classic Yogi Berra saying and descriptions of the events that surrounded these funny phrases being uttered.

A great book that is is short, concise and not long :).......2005-08-25

This is a must have for Yogi Berra fans or just anybody who appreciates baseball in an older, more pure era. This book contains not only his most famous quotes, but many from his personal life at home as well. The book is short (30 minute read). It is definately well worth reading or at least scanning through.

Short but funny with some ponderables.......2004-11-19

This small book contains many of Yogi Berra's humorous, and sometimes thought-provoking, statements. I added over 30 to my quotes collection. He explains how many originated and that he did not say some of the sayings attributed to him (p. 9: I really didn't say everything I said). Quite a few of them have been quoted so often as to have become part of our culture:

p. 30: It's dèja vu all over again!
p. 95: You can learn a lot by watching.
p. 118: The future ain't what it used to be.

But some were new to me:

p. 64: It gets late early out here.
p. 73: Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours.
p. 93: Never answer an anonymous letter.

Finally, Yogi's family contributed some of their own:

p. 125: Tim-I knew exactly where it was, I just couldn't find it.
p. 125: Betsy-Sometimes you have to get lost to find yourself.
p. 125: Mario-I've double checked it six times.

Enjoy the read, but don't take this book as historical fact.......2004-05-04

Yogi really DIDN'T say everything that's attributed to him. A whole cottage industry for sports writers has sprung up inventing way too clever stuff and putting it in Yogi's mouth.

Unfortunately, it may be too late to correct the record. How can Yogi disown such gems as "It's deja vu all over again" when everybody WANTS to believe he said it?

In the early 1980's I read an interview with Berra in which a journalist walked him through the fifty best known Berraisms, and Yogi disowned about half of them. Included in the spurious Berraisms was the world-renowned "It's deja vu all over again."

Sorry to be a spoilsport, but let's have a little truth here. Does anyone seriously believe that during his playing days this guy, who had such a shaky command of basic English, had the French expession "deja vu" in his word stock to draw upon when needed?

Fun and Nicely Done.......2002-11-14

What I liked about The Yogi Book is that it was a book about the man, by the man and for the man. It is a very simple book with a promising concept that had great pictures and timeless memories. The cut and dry attitude answers and explains the questions about his famous quotes in a way that is most delightful. The lack of nonsense and filler made the experience much more enjoyable and, combined with the fact that it was actually Yogi talking, made everything feel much more authentic and pure.

The one factor that seems to be a downside of the book is that is a very quick read. I was able to finish it in one hasty sitting and, being about as cheap as the day is long, I saw no need to purchase the book. For those that are fans as frugal as myself, I would recommend not purchasing but definitely reading.

Don't get me wrong, sure I'm a cheap [expletive], but that doesn't take away from this great read. You will be smiling the entire time you are reading and will be pleased that you took the time to go through all the classic quotes and great memories. Short and sweet, there's nothing wrong with that.

Average customer rating:
The Yogi Book "I Really Didn't Say Everything I said"
Berra Yogi
Manufacturer: Workman Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LBWX44

Customer Reviews:

Great trivia book, and a good one for collectors, too!.......2000-09-24

Plenty of facts, photos, technical information and trivia. A good book for someone looking for a beginner's-guide to building a film collection. And, great fun to read for us classic film fans!

Average customer rating:

An enticing title but a very poor content.

Question on Salvation are answered by this book.

Expanded my own understanding of the Bible

1001 Bible Questions Answered
William L. Pettingill , and R.A. Torrey
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Reference | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

Do you have a question about life, the Bible, or Christianity? This classic handbook delivers answers to the most asked questions posed by Christians and non-believers alike. No question is too challenging or too difficult, and the topics cover just about everything! This answer-packed handbook is sure to challenge seekers, reassure believers, and serve as a thought-provoking catalyst for study and discussion.

Customer Reviews:

An enticing title but a very poor content........2005-05-29

The authors of this book manifest a very deep ignorant of the Bible. It's a pity that 491 pages were filled with childish ideas. Those looking for a deep, unbiased and mature knowledge of the Bible and Religion should look for other serious works.

Question on Salvation are answered by this book........2001-06-06

I pick up this Book On B&N bookstore(on sale) and read it thru ,some concerned question of mine for years are clearer now(e.g. sin,salvation,Holy Spirit,creation and so on....i will encourage those reading this review to pick one for yourself,you will find most the important question in your Bible are in this book.i'm not saying 100%answer to your qustion but is definitely for Christian who are matured enough to understand.DEFINTELY WORTH READING....

Expanded my own understanding of the Bible.......1997-07-12

and has helped me to better grasp concepts I had shyed away from before. For instance, finally I can see how New testament believers are under Grace, while the old testament people were bound by the law of the Torah. Every page has enriched my knowledge and given me hours of topics to use in Bible Class discussions at church. I'm sure I will return to it many times to aid my understanding of the Good book!

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1001 Bible Questions
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1001 More Questions on the Bible
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General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0801070856

Product Description

This updated and expanded edition discusses many different tools for root cause analysis and presents them in an easy-to-follow structure: a general description of the tool, its purpose and typical applications, the procedure when using it, an example of its use, a checklist to help you make sure if is applied properly, and different forms and templates (that can also be found on an accompanying CD-ROM). The examples used are general enough to apply to any industry or market. The layout of the book has been designed to help speed your learning. Throughout, the authors have split the pages into two halves: the top half presents key concepts using brief languagealmost keywordsand the bottom half uses examples to help explain those concepts. A roadmap in the margin of every page simplifies navigating the book and searching for specific topics. The book is suited for employees and managers at any organizational level in any type of industry, including service, manufacturing, and the public sector. Contents: Chapter 1 Practical Problem Solving Chapter 2 Root Cause Analysis Chapter 3 Tools for Problem Understanding Chapter 4 Tools for Problem Cause Brainstorming Chapter 5 Tools for Problem Cause Data Collection Chapter 6 Tools for Problem Cause Data Analysis Chapter 7 Tools for Root Cause Identification Chapter 8 Tools for Root Cause Elimination Chapter 9 Tools for Solution Implementation Chapter 10 How to Select the Right Tool Chapter 11 Example Cases Further Reading and Additional Resources Index

Customer Reviews:

Root Cause Analysis.......2006-08-09

I found this book most helpful in trying to learn quickly the techniques of solving cause and effect problems; to which I had no previous study or training other than common sense.

It gave me specfic ways of gathering information and using it as a basis of making decisions that effect our daily operation and to be able to find ways of improving the quality of what we do.

Great hands-on root cause analysis tools.......2000-09-27

After looking through many books on root cause analysis, I came across this books published by the American Society for Quality (ASQ). While most books on root cause analysis go deeply into the theory and the concepts of the topic, this book presents, as the subtitle states, simplified tools and techniques that can be easily applied to any organization. At my employer -- a medical device company --, we have trained over 100 employees using the Andersen/Fagerhaug book to solve technical as well as staffing issues. I highly recommend the book for use at all levels of an organization.

Root Cause Analysis: Simplified Tools and Techniques, Second Edition (With accompanying CD-ROM)

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Root Cause Analysis: Simplified Tools and Techniques, Second Edition (With accompanying CD-ROM)

Manufacturer: ASQ Quality Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HZEV5I

Product Description

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Excellent book!

confusing the reader

Testament to suvivors of horror

Historical correction

Grab this little gem and embrace it

Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz
Lucette Matalon Lagnado , and Sheila Cohn Dekel
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Holocaust | Jewish | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Mengele: The Complete Story

ASIN: 0140169318

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book!.......2007-10-08

This book exceeded my expectations. The way the author goes back and forth between survivors' accounts and factual information about Mengele was a great way to keep the book interesting. I was intrigued from beginning to end. A lot of books that just rehash the past can be boring but this book was truely great. I learned a lot of factual information but also was deeply drawn to the survivors' stories. Highly recommended!

confusing the reader.......2007-07-07

This is a very good book with factual accounts from some of the youngest twins. What I found confusing is the way the author wrote the book. There seems to be some jumping around, comparisons of sorts. This book thoroughly explains how the surviving twins got together and met with the author, as well as the founding of their organization. This book does not go into great detail as to what specific types of horrific experiments were done, as most of the survivors able to tell their stories were very young at the time, and/or they have repressed their memories of the horror. It does give second-hand accounts of the 'goings-on' of Mengele by those that survived.

Testament to suvivors of horror.......2007-04-20

This harrowing book traces both the life of 'the angel of death', the psycopathic monster, Dr Josef Mengele, and his victims who survived.
Mengele carried out a range of horrific experiments on a range of people, mainly twins. particularly Jewish and Gipsey children, and various others.
As Mengele's life is described, so is the life of the survivors, the horrors that they experienced at Auschwitz and how they lived in the decades afterwards.
"Most of the twins began their descent into Auschwitz by witnessing their entire families being led away from them to be killed. In their special barracks, located just yards away from the crematoriums, they observed the Nazis' extermination of Jews at close range. Twins as young as five and six years of age endured torture, daily blood tests and starvation diets, as well as facing exposure to epidemics of cholera, tuberculosis and other deadly diseases that were rampant because of unsanitary conditions. Worst of all, of course, were the Mengele's barbaric pseudoscientific experiments. But as horrific as their lives were the twins enjoyed a special privileged status, for they were regarded as "Mengele's children". And as such they were spared the random selections and march to the gas chambers that threatened every other Auschwitz inmate'.

The testimony of a handful of survivors illustrates the horror of Mengele and Auschwitz, and the scars of the experiences suffered by his victims, and how they experienced them through their lives.
In the testimony of Moshe Offer, who was twelve years old at the time: 'When they opened the doors to our cattle cars, there were lots of dead children. During the trip, some mothers couldn't bare to hear the sound of their hungry babies-and so they killed them. I remember two blond, very beautiful children in my car, whose mother had choked them to death because she could not stand to watch them suffer'.

Eva Mozes, who was nine years old at the time, recounts how, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, she and her twin sister were packed into filthy, rat infested barracks, together with hundreds of other little girls.
She remembers seeing three dead children on the ground. Later they would always be finding dead children on the floor of the latrines.
From their barracks they could see huge, smoking chimneys rising high above the camp. There were glowing flames rising above them. ' " Why are they burning so late in the evening?" I asked the other children. "The Germans are burning people they answered".
Twins Hedvah and Leah Stern. who were thirteen years old at the time, recount how Mengele tried to change the colour of their eyes:' One day we were given eye drops. Afterwards, we could not see for several days. We though the Nazis had made us blind.
We were very frightened of the experiments. They took a lot of blood from us. We fainted several times, and the SS guards were very amused.
We were not very developed. The Nazis made us remove our clothes and they took photographs of us.
The SS guards would point to us and laugh. We stood naked in front of these young Nazi thugs, shaking from cold and fear, and they laughed."
The first few chapters of the book deal with Mengele's role in Auschwitz itself, and the rest of the book relates Eichmann's experience in hiding in South America, and the way the surviving twins built up lives and families for themselves, most of them in Israel, while the nightmare of Auschwitz would scar and effect them forever.Most of the twins longed to emigrate to the Land of Israel, then the British Colony of Palestine.
They soon found that the Communist rulers of their former homes in lands like Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, were hostile to the Jewish people too, and pesecuted those who wanted to go to Israel and those who wanted to hold onto their Jewish faith, as 'Zionists'. Thus developed that form of Leftist anti-Semitism known as anti-Zionism, which was incubated by the Soviet Union, and is endemic among the international left today.
The rest of the book deals with how Mengele dwindled in exile into a neurotic and bitter non-being. The surivors describe their lives in Israel and elsewhere, after the war, their often fearful behaviour, their nightmares and their treatment, and also how they built up new lives and families, which live on in the Jewish homeland.
Mengele died after suffering a stroke and drowning in 1979, in Brazil.

Historical correction.......2007-01-06

Dr.Mengele's actual history has been full of inaccuracies and speculations. This book attempts to clarify many issues. It is a must reading for anybody doing reseach about the holocaust.

Grab this little gem and embrace it.......2006-10-01

What these 2 authors have done is brilliant, elegant and spellbinding. They have woven together a historical timeline based on best available sources and featuring first-hand testimony from Dr. Mengele's twins, to shed light on Mengele's medical "experiments" -- some of the deepest sociopathy ever known to mankind -- as well as the many profiles in courage spawned by the tragic events covered. The book comes across as a labor of love, in which the authors relate as 2 civil human beings to another, engaging the best in the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. Rarely do I view a nonfiction work, however worthwhile, as one that I cannot put down, but this book is an exception. Scholars of the WWII/Holocaust era cannot consider that their library or education are complete without this work.

The overall impressions I have, from the many and tragically ironic story lines in this volume, leave me disturbed. This strikes me as not just a case of one individual's sociopathy translating to the ruin of countless lives and inflicting of infinite suffering. It is also a case of too many forces for good proving indecisive, apathetic and quarrelsome, so that justice, in the end, was not fully served, nor was the correct message transmitted to future generations. In far too many respects, the victims were left to find their own solace. This grossly compounds the damage, both to them and to any of us who are trying hard to find civility in the societies in which we live.

Children of the Flames, Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz

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Children of the Flames, Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz
Lucette Matalon Lagnado
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KSRVUY

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Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz
Lucette Matalon & Dekel, Sheila Cohn Lagnado
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ProductGroup: Book
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Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele & the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz

Average customer rating:

Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele & the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz
Lucette Matalon Lagnado , and Sheila Cohn Dekel
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NDOUV4

Customer Reviews:

good war writing.......2003-03-15

great telling of the gallipoli campaign. steel's book focuses on the british role in the sequence of battles, giving the reader much information concerning both command decisions and troop experiences (the latter via letters home and diary entries). this truly is a wonderful "war book" in that it doesn't glorify war, but at the same time gives us a warranted respect for the sufferings of the warrior.

Recommended.......2000-06-11

written without any bias. You feel like living one the hitory's bloodiest campaigns, very well narrated.

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Nigel and Peter Hart Steel
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Book Description

Thirty years have passed since the heyday of the women's liberation struggle, yet women remain second-class citizens. Feminism has shifted steadily rightward since the 1960s. This collection of essays examines these issues from a Marxist perspective, badly needed today.

Women and Socialism locates the source of women's oppression in class society, arguing that only a movement integrating the fight for women's liberation with a struggle against a system that puts profit above human needs can end women's oppression-along with all other forms of inequality.

Sharon Smith is the author of many articles on women's liberation and the US working class. Her writings appear regularly in Socialist Worker newspaper and the International Socialist Review.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2006-02-24

Great arguments, really good writing - easy to understand. Interesting, topical, relevant. Totally readable. Highly recommended.

Reenergizing and uncompromising.......2005-06-12

"Women & Socialism" by Sharon Smith is an enlightening series of essays on the topic of women's struggle for liberation. In an engaging and accessible writing style, Ms. Smith analyzes the class basis of women's oppression and discusses how building a socialist society is critical to achieving equality between the sexes. The book is refreshing in its ability to wade through the current feminist intellectual impasse and presents a clear-cut vision of how to achieve meaningful change for men and women everywhere.

Ms. Smith centers her analysis in Frederick Engels' groundbreaking work on historical materialism. Engels understood that the burden of domestic production falls on women and provides capital with a cheap means of reproducing labor power and allowing men to dominate the production and distribution of surplus value and culture. This relegates women to a subordinate status within the nuclear family and is often characterized by sexual exploitation. But through socialism, women can achieve equality by lifting the burden of privatized production.

In fact, the positive example provided by Russia's experience in the early years of the 1917 revolution supports the theory that socialism can measurably improve women's lives. Ms. Smith provides evidence of how Lenin and others in the revolutionary government specifically sought to empower women through unprecedented legislation that was in accordance with Marx and Engels' theories; unfortunately, these substantial gains were lost when Stalin rolled back these particular laws during the counterrevolution.

After reminding us that many of Russia's bourgeois feminists supported Stalin's reimposition of classism, Ms. Smith goes on to critique the contemporary feminist movement as exemplified by Naomi Wolf, NOW and others for its elitism and predisposition to accomodating the needs of capital which have practically ground the movement down to irrelevance. Ms. Smith points out that the individual achievements of exceptional persons such as Hillary Clinton does little for working class households who are suffering from steadily declining wages and deteriorating public services. Ms. Smith helps to reenergize the debate by demanding an uncompromising brand of socialism that can help improve the lives of all women, including universal health care, child care, and abortion rights for all.

Ms. Smith exposes the extreme hypocrisy of the Religious Right and the Conservative movement's promotion of war as a solution to the plight of Islamic women. She asserts that religious ideology serves the interests of class society and she finds little difference between the church and the mosque in their repressive treatment of women. In fact, the Religious Right's agenda is principally political and its agenda is inherently hostile to women, as evidenced by the Bush administration's myriad assaults on abortion rights and public services.

I highly recommend this timely, original and insightful book to everyone.

Understand the roots of women's oppression and how to end it.......2005-05-10

Sharon Smith's Women and Socialism, a collection of essays on women's liberation, is an indispensable critique of the systemic roots of women's oppression, and the limitations of liberal feminism in combating it. The volume is all the more valuable because the war currently being waged against women's rights demands the response of a massive grassroots movement that understands the true nature of its enemy.

Countering ideas of patriarchy, that men are inherently predisposed toward dominating women, Smith convincingly argues that women's oppression is the inevitable product of class society. This is no academic argument; it has real implications for how people organize for a better world. As Smith writes, "It is not possible for working class women to simultaneously unite with working class men in the class struggle and to unite with ruling class women in the struggle against working class men, as part of the patriarchy."

To prove her point, Smith points to the numerous betrayals of middle class feminist organizations which, because of their class allegiances, all too often do more to hurt the vast majority of working class women than they do to help them. There is the case of NOW taking a stand in court *against* the right to maternity leave. There is the Feminist Majority thanking George W. Bush for his "liberation" of Afghani women, providing ideological cover for a "War on Terror" which has killed hundreds of thousands of women in Iraq and Afghanistan, while bleeding working class families in the U.S. And finally, there are NARAL and Planned Parenthood staking the defense of abortion rights on the Democratic Party, which by constantly ceding ground to the right wing, itself undermines abortion rights.

The real value of Women and Socialism is that by laying out a Marxist analysis of women's oppression, it offers direction for those seeking to end such oppression for good - to transcend reforms within the capitalist system, which are inevitably chiseled away by the ruling class as mass struggle ebbs. The social movements of the 50's, 60's, and 70's on the one hand offered a glimpse of what is possible - ending Jim Crow, ending the war in Vietnam, winning the right to an abortion, ending the death penalty - but also show the consequences of failing to overturn the apple-cart entirely, in that the American working class is now stuck fighting many of those very same battles once again. Women and Socialism is essential reading for anyone who takes seriously the possibility of radical social change in the U.S. and the world at large.

Women's liberation and the dialectics of revolution. Reaching for the future : a 35-year collection of essays--historic, philosophic, global

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"Challenging, passionate, witty and deeply learned." A. Rich

Women's liberation and the dialectics of revolution. Reaching for the future : a 35-year collection of essays--historic, philosophic, global
Raya Dunayevskaya
Manufacturer: Humanities Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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"Challenging, passionate, witty and deeply learned." A. Rich.......1996-09-16

Women's Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolutions Reaching for the Future is the last completed major work of Raya Dunayevskaya, the founder of the philosophy of Marxist-Humanism, the first edition having been published only two years before her sudden death in 1987. In her 1986 review of this work for the Women's Review of Books, the poet and theorist Adrienne Rich described Dunayevskaya as one of the longest continuously active woman revolutionaries of the 20th century whose thought and activity "matters to our understanding of what and where the movement for women's liberation has been and might go." Hers is not the prose of a disembodied intellectual. She argues; she challenges; she urges on; she expostulates; her essays have the spontaneity of an extemporaneous speech . . . you can hear her thinking aloud. She has a prevailing sense of ideas as flesh and blood, of the individual thinking, limited by her or his individuality yet carrying on a conversation in the world. The thought of the philosopher is a product of what she or he has lived through. This collection of 35 years of Dunayevskaya's essays on women reveals how she saw the dialectics of revolution worked out in one single dimension-"Woman as Reason and Revolutionary Force"-globally and throughout history. That this book is even more important to a new generation of feminists in the 1990s than when this book first appeared a decade ago is due to the deepening of the retrogression the Women's Liberation Movement has suffered over this decade-not only from the forces of reaction outside the movement, but from the contradictions within the movement. What had first drawn Adrienne Rich to Dunayevskaya's work and a rethinking of the relationship of Women's Liberation to Marxism was the need to confront those contradictions. Similarly, the Black feminist writer and theorist Gloria Joseph has welcomed Dunayevskaya's discussion of the contradictions confronting feminists today. In a sharp "critique of all those leading feminist scholars" who "have excluded working-class women and Black women from their elite 'private enclave,'" what Joseph singled out was Dunayevskaya's powerful discussion of Sojourner Truth's phrase ashortminded," which she invented to criticize the great Black Abolitionist leader, Frederick Douglass, for not including women in the struggle for enfranchisement after the Civil War. What Dunayevskaya saw in Sojourner Truth's phrase, Joseph stressed, was a concept, one that had become a new language of thought against any who would impose a limitation to freedom." Any who today, she concluded, "put limitations on who the movement is for and (ignore) who remains exploited in the process of others being liberated," is similarly "short-minded." Her 1992 book, Gathering Rage: The Failure of 20th Century Revolutions to Develop a Feminist Agenda, is especially illuminating in finding in Dunayevskaya's work the "point of departure for those of us who seek answers in the multiple intersections of class, race, gender, and sexual orientation." Throughout Dunayevskaya's life and work," Randall stresses, "Women's liberation was an unnegotiable concern." The second part of the title of this collection: Reaching for the Future, is what speaks the most directly to today's new generation of "women's liberationists," whose task it becomes to continue working out the dialectic to full freedom. No one has said it better than Meridel LeSueur, the powerful woman writer from the Midwest, best known for her proletarian writings of the 1930s and her classic history of North Star Country, whose work for women's liberation has continued well into her 90s. When she heard of the plans for a new edition of Women's Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolution she wrote: "There is a wonderful spirit in this book, and it is badly needed in this time of questioning and new problems." She later framed this thought in one insistent sentence: "We need the new moment, we need it badly." Olga Domansk

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