Review by Choice Review
This informative history of recent struggles to make a feminist analysis of rape a matter of public concern is a useful supplement to broad-gauge histories of the whole women's movement. Bevacqua does a thorough job of research in the primary sources of the early years of the feminist mobilization against rape and supplements this with interviews with key players. The use of documents makes it possible for her to offer some challenges to retrospective common wisdom about the early movement. For example, she finds numerous cases of writings by women of color expressing concern about rape and shows how the effort to provide direct services to victims was intertwined from the beginning with struggles to change the laws about rape in ways that defy easy separation into liberal and radical strategies. The writing is clear and sometimes vivid, telling a story that many students do not know and should. But most of the analysis is relatively abstract and impersonal, making it a great resource for research on the movement but less than riveting in the classroom. The documentation is excellent, and as a research resource for more advanced students and faculty, it is unparalleled. M. M. Ferree University of Wisconsin
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
