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Temple University Press
The following review appeared in the April 2015 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
The third edition of Johnson’s book, initially published in 1997 (CH, Dec'97, 35-2423), emphasizes the self-perpetuating dynamics of what he labels patriarchy, or, as he puts it, a society that is “male dominated, male identified … male centered … [and] organized around an obsession with control.” Patriarchy, Johnson contends, is a social system, a complex web of ideas that defines not only how the world works but also where each person fits into it, a set of social structures that have become so accepted, so naturalized, that they are invisible. Because the system operates in the background as a kind of societal unconscious, it limits the alternatives that people perceive as being available, making change difficult. Johnson argues that patriarchy is responsible for the oppression of women and that its core quality—male-identified control—generates a dynamic that promotes competition, oppression, violence, and fear and is as harmful to men as to women. Younger readers may find some of the illustrative examples, especially those drawn from popular culture, a bit dated. Clearly written and thought provoking but with a troubling disjunction between the global implications of the theoretical literature discussed and the author’s exclusive focus on the US.
--N. B. Rosenthal, SUNY Old Westbury