Rebels in White Gloves: Coming of Age with Hillary's Class--Wellesley '69 - Softcover

Horn, Miriam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385720181 ISBN 13: 9780385720182

Publisher: Anchor, 2000

Synopsis

When the women of the Wellesley class of 1969 entered the ivory tower, they were initiated into a rarefied world. Many were daughters of privilege, many were going for their "MRS." But by the time they graduated four years later, they faced a world turned upside down by the Pill, NOW, student protests, the counterculture, and the Vietnam War.

In this social history, Miriam Horn retraces the lives of women caught on a historic cusp. This generation was the first to test-drive modern rules that remain complicated and contentious regarding sexuality, marriage, motherhood, paid work, spirituality, aging, and the difficulties of reconciling public and private life. The result is a story of uncommon subtleties and vibrancy that reflects this generation's fateful choices.

About this title

Review:

The riddle of how Hillary Rodham Clinton metamorphosed from a Goldwater Republican into the leading liberal of her generation is one that will keep whole generations of future historians guessing well into the coming millennium, and you can bet they'll all have well-thumbed copies of Miriam Horn's Rebels in White Gloves. Wellesley has always been the most staunchly conservative of the Seven Sisters women's colleges, but even so, it was no match for the student antiwar protests and rising feminist movement. "We are, all of us, exploring a world that none of us understand," Hillary Rodham noted in the commencement address she delivered to the class of '69. "The only tool we have to use ultimately is our lives." Horn's book is about the myriad ways the future first lady and her classmates used their lives--and, along the way, reinvented the notion of womanhood. Individual stories are given sociological context and grouped together under headings such as "In Search of Self," "Rebellions and New Solidarities," and "Balancing Work and Family." A senior writer for U.S. News and World Report, Horn is an especially gifted interviewer; through her questions, the Wellesley Class of '69 emerge as wise, well-spoken women. And, at this far remove, it is interesting to see what kind of peace they've made with their cloistered Wellesley selves. --Patrizia DiLucchio

From the Back Cover:

"Inspiring, bizarre, riotous, moving, and sad . . . a truly good read."--USA Today

"Unpredictable and fresh. . . . Like the experience of their most famous classmate, the lives of these Wellesley College graduates remind us how much and how little has changed for women during the past thirty years." --People

"Searching, sensitive. . . . That old feminist catchphrase 'the personal is the political' echoes throughout the book with a mature grasp of nuance and contradiction." --Newsday

"Engrossing . . . finely etched. . . . Horn turns a group portrait into a meditation on woman's essential nature, her proper place and role." --The New York Times Book Review

"Excellent. . . . A laudably even-handed account." --The Wall Street Journal

"A vivid and often humorous capsule history of the women who helped revolutionize America." --Cokie Roberts, author of We Are Our Mothers' Daughters

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0385720181
• ISBN 13: 9780385720182
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368