Review by Choice Review
This geographically wide-ranging collection focuses specifically on local case studies of actual efforts to do political work that is simultaneously feminist and antiracist, whether or not the participants use those labels (though most do). The contributors are mostly social scientists, and many of them successfully meld a perspective drawn from their disciplines with a more first-person anecdotal approach. Thus the individual essays provide a good sense of group experiences, often filled with tension and conflict, as well as critically informed reflection on the sources, processes, and outcomes of such difficulties. The 16 case studies are extremely varied--organizing exotic dancers in San Francisco, confronting Hindu nationalist violence in India, including the stories of comfort women in Japanese textbooks, developing a feminist organization in Zimbabwe, etc. Many of the chapters are exceptionally thoughtful about how racism and sexism are avoided, confronted, and even deployed in the organizations studied. Lacking systematic efforts to compare the studies, the book allows a reader or teacher the freedom to select, combine, and integrate the highly diverse material in many different ways, making it a useful resource for many different classes that seek a more international emphasis. Upper-division undergraduate students and above. M. M. Ferree University of Wisconsin
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
