"No one can understand how feminism has evolved without reading this radical, inflammatory second-wave landmark." —Naomi WolfOriginally published in 1970, when Shulamith Firestone was just twenty-five years old, and going on to become a bestseller, The Dialectic of Sex was the first book of the women's liberation movement to put forth a feminist theory of politics.Beginning with a look at the radical and grassroots history of the first wave (with i...

An international best-seller, first published in 1970 when Shulamith Firestone was just twenty-five years old, The Dialectic of Sex broke new ground in presenting a theory of politics for the women's liberation movement. Firestone posits that feminism is the key radical ideology, the missing link between Marx and Freud, uniting the political with the personal. The book remains of pressing relevance today - a testament to Firestone's startlingly prescience.'A landmark manifesto' Sus...

Die Überwindung von autoritären Formen der Kindererziehung und monogamen, eheähnlichen Zweierbeziehungen war immer wieder integraler Bestandteil utopischer Gesellschaftsentwürfe auf Seiten der politischen Linken. Ebenso waren viele AktivistInnen der 1968er-Bewegung der Überzeugung, soziale Revolution sei nicht ohne "befreite" Sexualität denkbar. Die Hoffnungen, die mit der Idee einer "sexuellen Revolution" verbunden wurden, haben sich jedoch nicht erfüllt: Radikale Kommune-Projekte scheite...

Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex proved immediately controversial upon its publication in 1970. The book’s thesis is that the origins of women’s oppression lie in biology: in the fact that it is women and not men who conceive and give birth to children. Firestone’s solution is revolutionary: since it is biology that is the problem, then biology must be changed, through technological intervention that would have as its end the complete removal of the reproductive process from wome...

In these eleven essays scholars from diverse disciplines address the argument, reception, and implications of The Dialectic of Sex and make a compelling, critical case for its contemporary salience.