Literary Nonfiction. Women's Studies. With a foreword by Margaret Atwood. Analyzing feudalism in Europe and Japan and European expropriation of lands and peoples across the globe, Marilyn French poses a provocative question: how and why did women, with no power or independence, nourish and preserve the family unit and their own culture?

Author Hometown: NEW YORK, NY USA



About the author: Marilyn French's views have always been unapologetically radical. Her work stresses that women's suppression is an integral function of the male-dominated global culture, both on the domestic and international front. She is best known for her first novel, the 21-million-copy bestseller The Women's Room, which is considered one of the most influential works of the modern feminist movement, and, more recently, its sequel, In the Name of Friendship. She spent fifteen years researching and writing her immensely readable four volume women's history series FROM EVE TO DAWN: A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE WORLD. Her other nonfiction works include Beyond Power: On Women Men, and Morals, The War against Women, and her memoir on her battle with esophageal cancer, A Season in Hell. She died in May 2009.