A Strange Stirring

A brilliant examination of how Betty Friedan’s revolutionary book The Feminine Mystique liberated women in the 1960s—and what it means to women today.

“An illuminating analysis of the book that helped launch the movement that freed women to participate more fully in American society.” —Wall Street Journal 

In 1963, Betty Friedan unleashed a storm of controversy with her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique. In A Strange Stirring, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz takes us back to the early 1960s—when women who wanted more out of life than housekeeping were labeled deviant, sexual hypocrisy and economic discrimination were rampant, and husbands controlled almost every aspect of family life.

Using extensive research and moving, personal interviews to examine what Friedan’s book meant to the women and men who read it then, Coontz shows how Friedan stirred thousands of women to realize that their depression and self-doubt reflected not a personal weakness but a political injustice. She also explores what is and is not relevant about Friedan’s message today.