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When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present |  | Author: Gail Collins
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $27.99
Buy Used: $13.98
as of 9/3/2010 18:27 CDT details
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Seller: penntext
Rating:  reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 480
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 0316059544
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.4097309045
EAN: 9780316059541
ASIN: 0316059544
Publication Date: October 14, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style" (People).
When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years, expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a generation.
A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen research--covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work--When Everything Changed is the definitive book on five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of "Help Wanted--Male" and "Help Wanted--Female" ads, and the lifting of quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. Gail Collins describes what has happened in every realm of women's lives, partly through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who simply made their way.
Picking up where her highly lauded book America's Women left off, When Everything Changed is a dynamic story, told with the down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone for which this beloved New York Times columnist is known. Older readers, men and women alike, will be startled as they are reminded of what their lives once were--"Father Knows Best" and "My Little Margie" on TV; daily weigh-ins for stewardesses; few female professors; no women in the Boston marathon, in combat zones, or in the police department. Younger readers will see their history in a rich new way. It has been an era packed with drama and dreams--some dashed and others realized beyond anyone's imagining.
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| Customer Reviews:
 An Engaging social history about a half-century of change August 22, 2010
Charles S. Houser (Binghamton, NY)
What W.E.B. DuBois did for African Americans in The Souls of Black Folk (Enriched Classics Series) New York Times columnist Gail Collins does for American women. Blending original research into the lives of ordinary women and amazing stories about key historical figures and leaders of the Women's Movement, Collins delivers a compelling narrative. Older readers (50+) will be reminded of events they've long forgotten (perhaps intentionally) and younger readers (under 30) will gain insights into what the women just a generation older than them went through to create more options for everybody. The victories were hard won but definative. It's hard to believe that there was a time when airlines scheduled business flights that could only be booked by men. Or that women graduating from Barnard who were not engaged by the end of their college careers were given lemons at the college's commencement exercises.
While Collins rightly highlights achievements, she can't entirely disguise an sense of melancholy around the current status of women. Because of the instability of marriage, no modern woman can plan with confidence how she will pay off her college loans, establish a gratifying and rewarding career, and start a family. Toward the end of the book she presents the case of Sarah Palin, ironically a beneficiary of the Women's Movement. As I thought about this, I couldn't help but feel the mood darken from melancholy to morbidity.
Collins's focus, it should be noted, is upon women who directly and intentionally took up the cause of women's rights. Consequently, many powerful and accomplished women are not discussed. For instance, there is no discussion of women in Hollywood, like Mary Pickford and Bette Davis, who circumvented or challenged the studio system. creating lasting change to that institution.
People who read and enjoy this book might also enjoy the two-part documentary "The Birth of the Independent Woman" that is a DVD extra on Mad Men: Season Two .
Been there, done that! August 3, 2010
LadyBug (NJ)
Being in my early 60's and having a career my whole life I found this book to be enlightening and disheartening at the same time. In the 60's I was married to a Marine and we lived in California so we were all about the Vietnam war and heard little else so I was very interested in the information about the Civil Rights movement. I obviously knew about it later but my world was more focused on the young lives being lost in Vietnam (I lost a good friend who was all of 19 when he died).
The stories of the different women that Gail Collings referenced in her book were extremely interesting. Since I remember being hired in the early 70's as part of an Affirmative Action program for a "professional" job and then having wonderful mentors (both male and female) I saw many discrimation acts against both women and people of color. I believe we have come a long way because of women like myself and my friends. I see young woman who just assume they can pursue whatever career they choose and am proud of the fact that I helped open some of those doors.
Gail Collins book helped me better understand all that went on during those years and it was Amazing. I now look back and see what an amazing time I lived through! Great Read!
Fantastic Non-Fiction July 31, 2010
bookworm1858 (San Diego)
When Everything Changed by Gail Collins
Little, Brown and Company, 2009
405 pages
Non-fiction
Summary: It's basically in the subtitle-the journey of American women from 1960 to the present.
Thoughts: This book is written exactly the way I like my non-fiction-very conversational with many short sections so that I can read a page or two in between stuff. It begins with an anecdote about a woman thrown out of traffic court for wearing slacks in the 1960s and relates many other stories about the women's movement, the backlash, and how far we've come/highlighting how far there still is to go. Particularly scary to me was the lack of assistance given to families who need help with childcare. I was in daycare for the first ten years of my life and my parents must have paid a fortune for it!
Overall: 4.5/5. While women have made tremendous progress, there is still room for improvement in balancing family and work and societal expectations of gender.
Cover: I love seeing Hillary and Michelle on the cover!
Amazing information July 27, 2010
Marianne Hoerner Choquet
Collins' two books on the history of " America's Women" are a must-read for every American.
Intellectually stimulating, completely enjoyable, and a reminder of what women have yet to accomplish. June 28, 2010
And Then Some Publishing LLC
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
In this 481-page book, there are 30 pages of notes and an 11-page bibliography. This gives you an idea of the thoroughness of the book.
Gail Collins was the editorial page editor for the New York Times from 2001 to 2007, the first woman to have held that position, and she currently writes a column for the Times' op-ed page. It goes without saying that she is an excellent writer, and every page of her book reflects her skills and easy-to-read style.
This book is a wonderful and important chronology as well as a terrific reference work that is full of insights, stories, historical facts, important information, and inspiration. Her stories of real women (including Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama--and others we don't know) make the book even more interesting. Of the personal interviews, one reviewer writes, "[they] portray the details of the daily lives of American women of the era. This is not library research. It is woman to woman sharing of memories, frustrations and small victories that took place as `everything changed'"
Whether you lived through it, read about it in other books, or are new to the area of feminism and women's rights, there is something in this book for you.
Carol M. Frohlinger, in her amazon.com review, writes, "From June Cleaver to Hillary Clinton, Gail Collins` new book, When Everything Changed, reminds us of both how much everything has changed for American women in the last 50 years and just how little. Collins writes skillfully about the `olden' days when a glamour career for a woman was to be a stewardess and when the reason most women went to college to get a `Mrs..'"
Frohlinger continues her review saying, "What Collins does particularly well though is to highlight that there still isn't gender parity in America's workplaces or homes. She ends on a note that celebrates how far we've come with a reality check - the gender pay gap still exists, too few women serve as CEOs or sit on corporate boards and the work-life balance conundrum has yet to be resolved."
This is the kind of book that should be required reading for everyone--not just women. It is intellectually stimulating, completely enjoyable, and a reminder of what women have yet to accomplish.
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