Against Our Will

By Susan Brownmiller,

Book cover of Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape

Book description

The bestselling feminist classic that revolutionized the way we think about rape, as a historical phenomenon and as an urgent crisis—essential reading in the era of #MeToo.
 
“A major work of history.”—The Village Voice • One of the New York Public Library’s 100 Books of the Century

As powerful and…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Against Our Will as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This 1975 feminist discussion really opened my eyes when I was a young scholar to how pervasive rape is all over the world. 

Brownmiller discusses rape during war, during pogroms, and during persecutions of various kinds. She focuses on sexual violence against Blacks during slavery, and against American “Indians,” as they were then called.

She also discusses prison rape and sexual violence against children. She investigates the literature on the psychology both of rapists, and of victims of rape. Although much has changed since 1975, this is a classic that anyone interested in the history of feminism, or the history…

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