Abstracts of Books

Abstracts of Books Unsigned abstracts arrived at the Journal before the editorial offices moved to The Ohio State University (when we instituted a policy of identifying authors), or the abstract author requested anonymity. Annmarie Adams. Architecture in the Family Way: Doctors, Houses, and Women, 1870-1900. McGill-Queen's/Hannah Institute Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society, ed. S. O. Freeman and J. T. H. Connor, no. 4. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996. xii + 227 pp.; ill. ISBN 0-7735-1386-8 (cl). The five essays in this book explore relationships between new understandings about the causes of disease, household architecture, decoration, plumbing systems, and women as housekeepers and mothers. The primary focus is on the middle-class home in urban London. Adams argues that women and doctors perceived the improperly designed and decorated home as a dangerous and unhealthy place. Doctors, seeking to expand their professional influence, and women, seeking to protect the health of their families, were primary instigators of change in the layout and decoration of homes; architects were conservative forces and focused more on artistry than on developing safe environments. Sources include magazines, advice books, furniture catalogs, medical texts, and plumbing manuals. Valerie S. Rake Margo Adler. Heretic's Heart: A Journey Through Spirit and Revolution. Boston : Beacon Press, 1997. 301 pp. ISBN 0-8070-7098-X (pb). Margo Adler's memoir begins with her childhood and adolescence in New York City during the 1950s as a red-diaper daughter of Frey da and Kurt Adler, emphasizing the influences of Jewish and leftist culture, McCarthyism, and her parents' divorce. Adler devotes most of the book to the 1960s. She describes her experiences as a student at Berkeley from 1964 to 1968, a civil rights organizer in Mississippi in the summer of 1965, a not very comfortable participant in the sexual revolution, a correspondent with an American soldier in Vietnam, and a member of the Venceremos Brigade in Cuba in 1969. Susan M. Hartmann Marjorie Agosin. Ashes of Revolt: Essays on Human Rights. Fredonia, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 1996.183 pp. ISBN 1-877727-56-3 (pb). Agosin highlights human rights violations and exile, revealing the hidden voices of those who survived the atrocities committed by military dictatorships, especially in Chile and Argentina. She brings her Jewish heritage to her writings, outUning generations of exile brought on by ethnicity, race, and political ideologies. Agosin remembers those who were tortured, murdered, and forgotten, honoring 11998 Journal of Women's History, Vol. 10 No. 1 (Spring) 1998 Abstracts of Books 199 their continued presence in life. Although the author reminds us to recognize the dead and those who continue to mourn them, she also asks the Chilean transitional government to recall the past brutalities, challenging politicians to acknowledge those that suffered and to make human rights a significant component of the national discourse. In this endeavor, Agosin compels us all to celebrate those who fight against injustice and above all to never forget. Anna M. Travis Beverly Allen. Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. xviii +180 pp. ISBN 0-8166-2818-1 (cl). As a scholar and feminist activist, Allen has been involved in war-relief efforts for genocidal rape victims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia since 1992, and has worked toward raising public awareness of the atrocities committed and prosecuting those responsible. This book, part of her war-relief efforts, consists of information gathered from a variety of sources, including personal accounts of Serbian rape / death camp survivors and testimonies of journalists and relief workers . Allen analyzes the abhorrent phenomenon of genocidal rape. Disputing the claim that rapes of Muslim and Croatian women by the Yugoslav Army and Serb militias are no more than a standard consequence of any war, Allen emphasizes the historical novelty of genocidal rape aimed at the impregnation of the victim as a systematic military policy, and suggests a definition for it as a crime of biological warfare. Ayfer Karakaya-Stump Peggy Andrews. Sisters Listening to Sisters: Women of the World Share Stories of Personal Empowerment. Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 1996. χ + 184 pp. ISBN 0-89789-476-6...