Douglas Murray
Arms and the Woman
The Terror Dream: What 9/11 Revealed About America
By Susan Faludi
Atlantic Books 351pp £12.99 order from our bookshop
‘To not understand the mythic underpinnings of our response to 9/11’, Susan Faludi tells us in the introduction of her new book, ‘is, in a fundamental way, to not understand ourselves.’ ‘To fail to comprehend the historical provenance of our reaction, the phylogeny behind our ontogeny, is to find ourselves thwarted in our ability to express what we have undergone.’
If you find, like me, that a little phylogeny and ontogeny go a long way, then you too might fail to agree with Barbara Ehrenreich’s puff that ‘This is a book that had to be written.’ Or you might agree with that, but acknowledge that this does not mean that the book has to be read.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
While you're waiting for the March issue of Literary Review to pop through your letterbox, have another read of February's cover piece: Richard Davenport-Hines on the stormy letters Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick wrote to one another.
http://ow.ly/iHKh50ywe1x
What's the worth of being zen when the icecaps are melting and populism looms? The world's leading thinkers including @ronpurser will assess the 'mindfulness' craze at the world's largest philosophy and music festival, @HTLGIFestival, this May. Learn more: http://ow.ly/STu650ywARQ
'Feminists have been caricatured so often that it’s worth recalling the many obstacles placed in the path of women campaigning for equal rights.'
@polblonde on @helenlewis's new book about difficult women throughout history.
http://ow.ly/Is9c50ywe7G