Old Wife's Tale, An: My Seven Decades in Love and War - Softcover

Decter, Midge

3.17

23 ratings by Goodreads

9780060989002: Old Wife's Tale, An: My Seven Decades in Love and War

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060989009 ISBN 13: 9780060989002

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2002

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An outspoken opponent of ideological feminism dissects the changing roles of women over the last fifty years in this energetic, pithy memoir.

Over the past few years, young voices from Katie Roiphe to Wendy Shalit have started to question the assumptions of women's lives since the advent of feminism and the sexual revolution. But how did we get from there to here? A well-known essayist, editor, and lecturer, Midge Decter's conservative stands on modern social issues have historically raised controversy. An Old Wife's Tale is her thoughtful, pointed examination of the role of women over the last sixty years, as viewed through the lens of her own life. From stories of her youth during after World War II to wry observations about the supposedly oppressed housewives who were her peers in suburban Long Island, to analysis of her later roles as single mother, publishing executive, happily married woman, and doting grandmother, Decter takes unstinting aim at those who in her view have completely reordered the roles and expectations of both men and women--with confusion and misery the result for both.

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About the Author:

Midge Decter is an author and editor whose essays and reviews have appeared in Harper's, The Atlantic, National Review, The New Republic, and The Weekly Standard. A regular contributor to Commentary, she is also the author of several books, the most recent being An Old Wife's Tale. She is a member of the board of the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Security Policy, First Things magazine of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, and the Clare Boothe Luce Fund, and she lectures widely on a variety of subjects, from the family to foreign policy. She lives in New York City with her husband, author Norman Podhoretz.

From Publishers Weekly:

Under cover of a memoir, Decter, a politically conservative columnist and author (Liberal Parents, Radical Children), has a lot of fun railing at two of her favorite targets: feminists and communists. A right wing fixture in many debates with feminists (whom she refers to as "libbers") in the 1970s, she still can't figure out what possible complaint women could harbor against their position in society. Although she obviously enjoyed working in the literary field while raising children, the former executive editor of Harper's now wishes she had waited until her youngest was in high school. In addition to swipes at Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and lesbians at large, she also ventures the unpopular opinion that housework is "nourishing" and blames the 1960s and '70s women's movement for self-destructive trends, such as anorexia, that afflict girls today. Her hostility toward communists led Decter to form the Committee for a Free World (now disbanded), composed of conservative thinkers, to provide journalistic support for worldwide economic and political freedom. The ideological rants in this very readable and occasionally witty account will be of great interest to many conservative readers, but Decter's personal, less caustic recollections, especially those about her four children, 10 grandchildren and longtime husband, Norman Podhoretz (also a prominent conservative intellectual), have a wider appeal. Agent, Lynne Chu. (Sept.) Forecast: Sure to attract reviews, this feisty memoir is slated for a 15-city NPR campaign and author appearances in New York City.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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