Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Current Media
A very good interview about the book was done on “Books of Our Times,” an interview show sponsored by the Massachusetts School of Law. It is is currently airing on various Comcast channels and I will post some excerpts on You Tube, soon. The extremely well-prepared interviewer is Lawrence Vervel, Dean of the School, whose questions were so thorough, I had to reread the book ahead of time. (Lawrence has been in the news lately, and appeared on Frontline, for his role in unraveling the Bernie Madoff scandal.)
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Paperback Launch
June 11, 2009
Thank you Norwich Bookstore and Nancy Crumbine (Dartmouth professor extraordinaire) for a GREAT launch for the paperback edition of THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND. It was wonderful to see a standing room-only crowd on June 10th. Book store owner Penny McConnell sent me a note saying that the store sold out of books. Most of all I was struck by the quality and thoughtfulness and intelligence of questions that people asked – about America’s political culture, about where we are in history, about how and why the spirit of activism died out. And most of all about grass roots politics. The bigger story is how the 60s shaped us all.
It was a wonderful crowd and an auspicious beginning for the paperback life of the book. I brought my camera but forgot to take pictures so you will have to take my word for it. If you find yourself in Norwich Vermont (a beautiful town, just across the Connecticut River from Hanover NH) be sure to visit the Norwich Bookstore (291 Main Street, Norwich) and say hello to Penny McConnell, the owner.
Thank you Norwich Bookstore and Nancy Crumbine (Dartmouth professor extraordinaire) for a GREAT launch for the paperback edition of THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND. It was wonderful to see a standing room-only crowd on June 10th. Book store owner Penny McConnell sent me a note saying that the store sold out of books. Most of all I was struck by the quality and thoughtfulness and intelligence of questions that people asked – about America’s political culture, about where we are in history, about how and why the spirit of activism died out. And most of all about grass roots politics. The bigger story is how the 60s shaped us all.
It was a wonderful crowd and an auspicious beginning for the paperback life of the book. I brought my camera but forgot to take pictures so you will have to take my word for it. If you find yourself in Norwich Vermont (a beautiful town, just across the Connecticut River from Hanover NH) be sure to visit the Norwich Bookstore (291 Main Street, Norwich) and say hello to Penny McConnell, the owner.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
From the Mailbox
MAY 11, 2009
Ms. Nies: The faculty of Gilman School would like to read your book this summer as the assigned book for summer reading. When will it be available in paperback?
It is a terrific book; my favorite of last summer. I found it in a bookstore on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, and couldn’t put it down until I had finished it.
Jerry Thornbery
History Department
Gilman School
Baltimore, MD 21210
MAY 6, 2009
Ms. Nies:
I just stumbled across your book so was absolutely delighted to discover its contents. I observed or experienced what you did. It so paralelled my life. I was a political science student at the University of Iowa, graduating in 3 years in 1959. I tried for the Woodrow Wilson scholarship. Alas! My classmate males all went on to graduate school, became city managers, went to law school or ran for office - and I taught. (In fact when I declared my major, my advisor said, "What will you do with this?" and I said, "teach". His reply was, "What are you planning to coach?" as schools in Iowa needed coaches, not social studies teachers . . . so I did a double major with the second being elementary education.)
. . . I taught school for several years in California, ran political campaigns at night, and participated in love-ins and teach-ins and protest marches - obviously, secrets from my employers! I worked for George E. Brown, Jr., in the summers in L.A. I ran his entire precinct operation in the Spring of 1968 and piggy-backed Robert Kennedy's campaign on it. I was at the Ambassador when Kennedy was shot.
I was instrumental in the late 70's, early 80's in getting Voter Registration expanded in Ohio as it had been in California since the 60's. Most recently, I was in charge of Voter Protection in my part of Ohio for the Obama campaign and the state Democratic Party.
Carol J. Holm, Esq.
Dayton OH 45402
MAY 3, 2009
I gave your book to a friend in San Fran who is quite connected to politics there (a former sorority sister from Duke and pol. sci major who is now on several land regulation boards in SFO)
She loved it as she is also a woman of the 60s. She is good friends with Diane
Feinstein so will buy two more and give to her and another political friend. How is it going?
APRIL 6, 2009
Hello. I recently saw a talk that you gave at a bookstore in Cambridge,MA last June, 2008. It was filmed on CSPAN. I was absolutely fascinated by your perspective and life story. Do you have any plans to speak on the West Coast, specifically, Portland,Oregon in the near future?I am certain my friends and I would love to hear you speak, you are wonderful!
Carey Kaas
FEBRUARY 15, 2009
Have been clutching your book to bosom and using it to fuel my currently cooking 60s-women story. You got it right. Right ON. Especially good to hear about the current generation who had no clue their freedom had to be fought for.
I remember talking with you sporadically the years you worked to bring this history home.
Brava.
Shelby Allen
Ms. Nies: The faculty of Gilman School would like to read your book this summer as the assigned book for summer reading. When will it be available in paperback?
It is a terrific book; my favorite of last summer. I found it in a bookstore on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, and couldn’t put it down until I had finished it.
Jerry Thornbery
History Department
Gilman School
Baltimore, MD 21210
MAY 6, 2009
Ms. Nies:
I just stumbled across your book so was absolutely delighted to discover its contents. I observed or experienced what you did. It so paralelled my life. I was a political science student at the University of Iowa, graduating in 3 years in 1959. I tried for the Woodrow Wilson scholarship. Alas! My classmate males all went on to graduate school, became city managers, went to law school or ran for office - and I taught. (In fact when I declared my major, my advisor said, "What will you do with this?" and I said, "teach". His reply was, "What are you planning to coach?" as schools in Iowa needed coaches, not social studies teachers . . . so I did a double major with the second being elementary education.)
. . . I taught school for several years in California, ran political campaigns at night, and participated in love-ins and teach-ins and protest marches - obviously, secrets from my employers! I worked for George E. Brown, Jr., in the summers in L.A. I ran his entire precinct operation in the Spring of 1968 and piggy-backed Robert Kennedy's campaign on it. I was at the Ambassador when Kennedy was shot.
I was instrumental in the late 70's, early 80's in getting Voter Registration expanded in Ohio as it had been in California since the 60's. Most recently, I was in charge of Voter Protection in my part of Ohio for the Obama campaign and the state Democratic Party.
Carol J. Holm, Esq.
Dayton OH 45402
MAY 3, 2009
I gave your book to a friend in San Fran who is quite connected to politics there (a former sorority sister from Duke and pol. sci major who is now on several land regulation boards in SFO)
She loved it as she is also a woman of the 60s. She is good friends with Diane
Feinstein so will buy two more and give to her and another political friend. How is it going?
APRIL 6, 2009
Hello. I recently saw a talk that you gave at a bookstore in Cambridge,MA last June, 2008. It was filmed on CSPAN. I was absolutely fascinated by your perspective and life story. Do you have any plans to speak on the West Coast, specifically, Portland,Oregon in the near future?I am certain my friends and I would love to hear you speak, you are wonderful!
Carey Kaas
FEBRUARY 15, 2009
Have been clutching your book to bosom and using it to fuel my currently cooking 60s-women story. You got it right. Right ON. Especially good to hear about the current generation who had no clue their freedom had to be fought for.
I remember talking with you sporadically the years you worked to bring this history home.
Brava.
Shelby Allen
Monday, September 8, 2008
Book Club Conversation
September 8, 2008
Last night had an exciting meeting with two book clubs in Marblehead who combined for this discussion. Marblehead is the next town to Swampscott, Massachusetts where I grew up. A mixed group of men and women, some of whom had seen me on C-Span's "Book TV" the previous weekend. They also had done a wonderful reading of the book that elicited a lot of terrific questions and reflections about their own experiences and the history they lived through. What seemed to be of most interest to the men was that they didn't know how unequal the world was for women (although one thought that women had done very well during the 1960s). Most interesting to the women was to see themselves as actors in a transformational historic period.
Some stories....
Middlebury graduate: Like me, the only employer who came to her campus her senior year was the telephone company. She DID take a job as a customer service representative. She had also took a typing test at Snelling & Snelling in Lynn, a few years later, when she was trying to find a job other than as a customer service rep. She eventually found a career and started her own business.
Teacher: When she was interviewed, the principal asked her, "Do you plan to get married? If so, I can't hire you." He did in fact hire her because he did believe in women's talent but he was unusual and stood out from the principals she had later.
Stanford doctor: She graduated from medical school in 1964 and was one of two women in her class. The other woman flunked out after being told she was "too pretty" to be a doctor. Said she didn't become interested in "women's lib" because in the medical field, women who thought like the doctors treated her as badly as men. But, she said, she was treated very meanly by men who didn't think women should be doctors.
Sex, the military and global power: One woman asked me about my description of going into the red light district of Istanbul in 1963 and seeing it completely populated by American military personnel, sailors, soldiers all in uniform. The question: Is this still going on? Does the presence of the American military mean a large population of young girls get entrapped in prostitution? Who writes about this? Is the question about the American military and the sex trade still relevant? (Partial answer: Yes, and Cynthia Enloe writes about this in her book Bananas,Beaches and Bases.)
Bonnie H: "This book has a great narrative of women's history in the 60s and 70s. It is the first really cogent account I have read of how complex and how many varied strands had to come together to create what we call the second wave of feminism."
Big question: How does this history get passed on and why has the women's movement been omitted from the collective memory of the 1960s?
Last night had an exciting meeting with two book clubs in Marblehead who combined for this discussion. Marblehead is the next town to Swampscott, Massachusetts where I grew up. A mixed group of men and women, some of whom had seen me on C-Span's "Book TV" the previous weekend. They also had done a wonderful reading of the book that elicited a lot of terrific questions and reflections about their own experiences and the history they lived through. What seemed to be of most interest to the men was that they didn't know how unequal the world was for women (although one thought that women had done very well during the 1960s). Most interesting to the women was to see themselves as actors in a transformational historic period.
Some stories....
Middlebury graduate: Like me, the only employer who came to her campus her senior year was the telephone company. She DID take a job as a customer service representative. She had also took a typing test at Snelling & Snelling in Lynn, a few years later, when she was trying to find a job other than as a customer service rep. She eventually found a career and started her own business.
Teacher: When she was interviewed, the principal asked her, "Do you plan to get married? If so, I can't hire you." He did in fact hire her because he did believe in women's talent but he was unusual and stood out from the principals she had later.
Stanford doctor: She graduated from medical school in 1964 and was one of two women in her class. The other woman flunked out after being told she was "too pretty" to be a doctor. Said she didn't become interested in "women's lib" because in the medical field, women who thought like the doctors treated her as badly as men. But, she said, she was treated very meanly by men who didn't think women should be doctors.
Sex, the military and global power: One woman asked me about my description of going into the red light district of Istanbul in 1963 and seeing it completely populated by American military personnel, sailors, soldiers all in uniform. The question: Is this still going on? Does the presence of the American military mean a large population of young girls get entrapped in prostitution? Who writes about this? Is the question about the American military and the sex trade still relevant? (Partial answer: Yes, and Cynthia Enloe writes about this in her book Bananas,Beaches and Bases.)
Bonnie H: "This book has a great narrative of women's history in the 60s and 70s. It is the first really cogent account I have read of how complex and how many varied strands had to come together to create what we call the second wave of feminism."
Big question: How does this history get passed on and why has the women's movement been omitted from the collective memory of the 1960s?
Monday, August 11, 2008
From the August Mailbox
It's the truth--once I had got into the story, I was hooked--and I finished the book so admiring of you.
You had loads of what we English used to call gumption and where I just bowed my head and buckled and complained, you were brave and made your way and thereby cleared a path for others.
And weirdly, though I consider myself an old feminist, I needed the central messages--that change is brought about by the dedicated activism of a few, not through some kind of inexorable cultural tide--that the work and achevements of previous generations of women advocates are systematically erased from the cultural record so it's always three steps forward and then two back at best.
I am buying five more copies of your book to send to friends.
Love and Congrats G
You had loads of what we English used to call gumption and where I just bowed my head and buckled and complained, you were brave and made your way and thereby cleared a path for others.
And weirdly, though I consider myself an old feminist, I needed the central messages--that change is brought about by the dedicated activism of a few, not through some kind of inexorable cultural tide--that the work and achevements of previous generations of women advocates are systematically erased from the cultural record so it's always three steps forward and then two back at best.
I am buying five more copies of your book to send to friends.
Love and Congrats G
From the August Mailbox
Dear Judy,
I just received your new book from my mama for my birthday and I dove into it this eve. I'm only 23 pages in but am totally IN. I really am drawn into your style and am piecing together bits of history that I vaguely remember learning--now made more clear with your insightful stories and juicy descriptions. I'm sure people will read this on a lot of levels, but for Christina and other women of our generation there is the definite learning in store to not take for granted what we can now do as women. I'm off to finish chapter 2 and onto the next...
I just received your new book from my mama for my birthday and I dove into it this eve. I'm only 23 pages in but am totally IN. I really am drawn into your style and am piecing together bits of history that I vaguely remember learning--now made more clear with your insightful stories and juicy descriptions. I'm sure people will read this on a lot of levels, but for Christina and other women of our generation there is the definite learning in store to not take for granted what we can now do as women. I'm off to finish chapter 2 and onto the next...
Friday, August 1, 2008
From the August Mailbox
Judith--I am having a wonderful time with your book.
I ran the gauntlet about 5 years ahead of you and from an academic (Harvard) rather than a political (SAIS) base but there are still a lot of personal parallels but also of course deep engagement in the politics of the period--although for me at more of a remove than a staffer on Congressional committees!
I didn't know that you were going to tell the story so personally and it's obviously a brave decision but as I read I think there's no other way to convey the reality of your two main themes--the narrowness of the decision-makers' perception of the world in spite of their seeming worldiness--and the deep cultural roots under the daily reality of discrimination against women.
I haven't finished but I've done little else but read these last few days. Thank you for doing this.
Most sincerely,
Mona
I ran the gauntlet about 5 years ahead of you and from an academic (Harvard) rather than a political (SAIS) base but there are still a lot of personal parallels but also of course deep engagement in the politics of the period--although for me at more of a remove than a staffer on Congressional committees!
I didn't know that you were going to tell the story so personally and it's obviously a brave decision but as I read I think there's no other way to convey the reality of your two main themes--the narrowness of the decision-makers' perception of the world in spite of their seeming worldiness--and the deep cultural roots under the daily reality of discrimination against women.
I haven't finished but I've done little else but read these last few days. Thank you for doing this.
Most sincerely,
Mona
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