Sex Wars

by Marge Piercy

Book Overview

Post-Civil War New York City is the battleground of the American dream. In this era of free love, emerging rights of women, and brutal sexual repression, Freydeh, a spirited young Jewish immigrant, toils at different jobs to earn passage to America for her family. Learning that her younger sister is adrift somewhere in the city, she begins a determined search that carries her from tenement to brothel to prison--as her story interweaves with those...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060789875
• ISBN13: 9780060789879
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent read - entertainment and education

I loved this book. The first chapter was very average, but after that I was hooked! I thought the way you identified with the way some think, and trying to achieve (Elizabeth and Freydeh) and then would get pi**ed off by others (Anthony). Anthony was just one character I couldn't handel, its hard to believe people can think like that, so black and white while themseleves acting in the grey (e.g. the "research" he did with "indecient" material - anatomy books, erotica and girly shows, while preching that the world was going to the dogs because women were working and getting an education). I was dissapointed with Victorias final story - she just seemed to go into a world where she hid the woman she was, with all the strength and free thoughts. I'm still realing over the age of consent being 10....it totally blows my mind. It was good to see how far womens rights have come, but to me highlighted areas where things are still far behind and that to some members of society those "womens" rights were the cause of all the bad in the current world - I have met too many Anthonys

Another gem from Marge Piercy

My husband and I often read the same books, and it was particularly enjoyable to share this one together. We don't agree with the previous reviews. We loved the ways that Piercy wove together historical information with the characters lives. We were both so inspired by Victoria Woodhull that we got her biography from the library and combed through that as well. I have always liked the ways that Piercy shifts time frames and social contexts, helping the reader to imagine him or herself in the shoes and worlds of those characters. She makes history breathe with sensuality, passion, anxiety and corruption, and brings a critical analysis to her stories. I would like her to take on the topic of Jewish and Black social activists collaborating during the Civil Rights period, the effect of the McCarthy period on social activist families, and more reconstructive visions of the future from her understandings of the global justice movement. Go, Marge, Go. My other all-time favorite of hers is HE, SHE and IT.

Quasi-Fictitious, Real Life Characters

Utterly fascinating. An exceptional book. Weaves truth with fiction, making for a very informative, highly readable historical account of those years (in New York) right after the Civil War, and into Reconstruction (although Reconstruction is not discussed an any great length here, the well-read individual who pursues her/his interest in the Civil War and its aftermath may find some points of comparison and contrast when comparing the Reconstruction years in New York City with those in the South). This narrative contains vivid descriptions of this period of immigration of millions of individuals who endured lives of varying degrees of poverty (much of it abject) and livelihoods of varying degrees on the streets of New York, some of it good -- much of it harsh, AND inventive. It also brings to the fore the "Robber Barons" and the elite Rich who raced through Central Park and visited their madams and houses of prostitution -- and Women's Suffrage; initially in the background, then racing to the forefront, with varying degrees of success with setbacks, division, and imprisonment -- struggling along, then gathering speed and sureness, then splitting along divided lines, yet still gaining momentum. And all through this narrative one finds Anthony Comstock, his notorious ways, and the Comstock Laws, meddling in and ruining the lives of many honest and dishonest shopkeepers and women trying to earn their daily bread by making condoms or selling or distributing birth control pamphlets. The descriptions of the street gangs, the dirt and squalor, the honest individuals trying to make a living, the Woodhull sisters and their cunning ability to reach the hearts and minds and purses of those in power, the various personalities inhabiting the alleys and shacks, the 5th Avenue "castles" and whorehouses -- and then the fictional but highly possible life and quests of Freydeh and her orphans -- keeps the reader spellbound. There is a wealth of information here about Women's Suffrage in the early days; initially Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony - two opposites who work together nonetheless, as major agents for change and reform, AND the Woodhull sisters, advocates of Free Love -- who started the first successful stockbrokerage run by women (scans of their newsletters can be found on the Internet) who then joined forces for a while with those two formidable suffragettes, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony (and caused a scandal among the other Suffragettes because of their Free Love stance). I consider this book not only a great "read", but also fertile grounds and a springboard for further research into Women's Suffrage and the immigrant experience in New York City in that period immediately after the Civil War.

Terrific Read

Most exciting historical novel I've read in ages, set in an unusual time, just after the Civil War. It follows several very different people, including the leading "first wave" feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Victoria Woodhull, along with the puritannical moral campaigner Anthony Comstock, and a struggling recent Jewish immigrant and her family. I could hardly put the book down as it ranged from one group of characters to another, and I found it just delicious. Other reviewers have felt that the dialogue was wooden, but it didn't bother me in the least, and it's an easy read, not a sociology text. It's so important to be reminded how bad life was for women and how hard women had to fight to change the laws and society. Well-written and of interest to feminists, those interested in the 19th century spiritualist movement, and the experiences of immigrants in New York City.

Great Read -Women Lives in Post-Civil War Times

I really enjoyed reading Sex Wars. Many of the characters were real people (especially women) fighting to live out their goals and dreams in the 1870's and 1880's. When I finished the book I had to immediately look up the real life stories of Victoria Woodhull (notorious free love speaker, stockbroker and medium), Anthony Comstock (fighter of profanity who goes too far), Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Vanderbilt. The fictional character of Freydah was great too. She really made me imagine what it would be like to be an immigrant back in the late 1800's -as a woman who lost her spouse, as a non native speaker, without spousal support, without money, and without laws protecting her from harm and unfairness, and as someone who had to work tirelessly just to make it and fight against prejudice and the social grain. -How different life was for the single woman and the married woman. This book truly highlights this. I liked the structure of the book and found it suspenseful. Each chapter was from a different character's point of view and would then rotate back to each character again chapter by chapter. This book helped me to see a glimpse of what America was like during this time period. It helps one see how the events and attitudes of the past frame and contribute to the politics and attitudes that we have today -especially concerning women. It is so interesting to think about the people who come before us. The only things I found not so great: I felt Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who are incredible women to me could have been written about a little more interestingly.