In Defense of Witches

October 1, 2021

Ranging from when New York City was inhabited by the Lenape people to the present day, from grubby brothels to chic hotels, Bird tells the story of New York by focusing on A Block in Time that's bounded east-west by Sixth and Seventh avenues and north-south by 23rd and 24th streets and is overlooked by the famous Flatiron Building (45,000-copy first printing). Chief editor for Le Monde diplomatique, Chollet argues In Defense of Witches, whom she sees as symbolic of female resistance to male oppression throughout history, with the women most likely to be perceived as witches--independent-minded, childless, or older--still being outcast today (75,000-copy first printing). Having reported from Hong Kong as well as South East Asia, journalist England offers Fortune's Bazaar, the story of kaleidoscopic Hong Kong through the diverse peoples who have made the city what it is today (75,000-copy first printing). A former senior editor at The New Yorker and author of the multi-best-booked Ike and Dick, Frank returns with a reassessment of our 33rd president in The Trials of Harry S. Truman. Influential Brown economist Galor, whose unified growth theory focuses on economic growth throughout human history, tracks The Journey of Humanity to show that the last two centuries represent a new phase differentiated from the past by generally better living conditions but also a radically increased gap between the rich and the rest. Following A Thousand Ships, which was short-listed for Britain's Women's Prize for Fiction and a best seller in the United States, Haynes's Pandora's Jar belongs to a growing number of titles that put the female characters of Greek mythology front and center as less passive or secondary than they've been regarded (25,000-copy hardcover and 30,000-copy paperback first printing). In Against All Odds, popular historian Kershaw tells the story of four soldiers in the same regiment--Capt. Maurice "Footsie" Britt, West Point dropout Michael Daly, soon-to be Hollywood legend Audie Murphy, and Capt. Keith Ware, eventually the most senior US general to die in Vietnam--who became the four most decorated U.S. soldiers of World War II. After World War II, six women were given the daunting task of programming the world's first general-purpose, all-electronic computer, called ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) and meant to calculate a single ballistic trajectory in 20 seconds rather than 40 hours by hand; internet law and policy specialist Kleiman interviewed four of the women over two decades, eventually writing Proving Ground and producing the award-winning documentary The Computers (50,000-copy first printing). From former Wall Street Journal reporter and New York Times best-selling author Lowenstein (e.g., When Hubris Failed), Ways and Means shows how President Abraham Lincoln and his administration parlayed efforts to fund the Civil War into creating a more centralized government. New York Times best-selling author Rappaport (Caught in the Revolution) shows what happened After the Romanovs to the aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals who fled the Russian Revolution for Paris (60,000-copy first printing).

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January 1, 2022
Chollet's English-language debut is a smart feminist treatise reclaiming the witch and her radical way of life as a path forward for women, as opposed to the death sentence it once represented. She argues that the reasons why women were tortured and killed in witch hunts between the late fifteenth and eighteenth centuries are the very same reasons modern women continue to be persecuted today: remaining single or unmarried, remaining childfree or ending unwanted pregnancies, aging with an emphasis on going gray, and being smart, or more specifically, possessing more knowledge than men. Chollet refreshes these familiar issues by melding philosophy, history, personal experience, and a wide range of literature with current interest pieces such as when she couples activist Barbara MacDonald's texts with a recent press piece about Gloria Steinem titled "Granny Does Resistance" to emphasize the unparalleled ageism that women experience. She also spends time with less familiar ideas such as normalizing mothers who regret having children. Chollet's informed and passionate treatment will appeal to readers looking for more substance amid the witch trend that's otherwise been largely commodified and often scrubbed of its feminist origins.

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February 28, 2022
In this spirited yet uneven polemic, journalist Chollet traces misogynistic attitudes in Western society back to witch hunts that occurred in Europe and the U.S. from the 1300s to the 1700s. These periodic public tortures and executions of women “induced all women to be discreet, docile, and submissive,” according to Chollet, and drove them into an acceptance of the “gendered division of labor required by capitalism.” She forcefully argues that the marginalization of single women, women without children, older women, and female healers is a direct legacy of the witch hunt, though her calls for rethinking social behaviors and expectations often seem out-of-date. For example, her critique of the “standard birth position” of “lying on your back” doesn’t acknowledge that women in the U.S. have been encouraged to sit or move during labor since the 1980s. Elsewhere, Chollet presumes that “a large number of parents have given in to societal pressure rather than to an impulse of their own” without providing firm evidence for such a conclusion. Though her iconoclastic wit shines, Chollet’s provocations ultimately come across as more defensive than revolutionary. This call for change feels like old news.

January 1, 2022

Chollet, a Swiss journalist and feminist, spotlights aspects of modern misogyny by comparing them to historical misogyny characterized by the victimization of witches. The book opens with the author's fascination since childhood with the feminine power of fairytale witches, which is contrasted with the real history of witch hunts. She notes that women accused of witchcraft were at the mercy of male institutions (religions and governments). Chollet extensively discusses the torture of accused witches, then brings us up to current attempts to control and malign women. One section examines women who decide not to have children and are disparaged by society for it, even though childcare usually burdens women and limit their other life choices. She next examines the way a woman's age affects society's understanding and treatment of her. The final section explores why attributes generally associated with masculinity are extolled while traits associated with femininity are discounted (e.g., the privileging of rational math and science over the emotional or expressivity in the humanities). The author also examines the objectification of women in modern medicine. VERDICT Feminists will appreciate this exploration of rebellion and independence.--Caren Nichter

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