Reckoning

April 15, 2019
In this inspiring but not unrealistically optimistic history, lawyer and cultural historian Hirshman (Sisters in Law) narrates the rise of what has become the #MeToo movement. The groundwork was laid in 1975, when law student Catharine MacKinnon made the case for sexual harassment to be deemed a violation of the Civil Rights Act, clearing the way for Meritor vs. Vinson, a landmark 1986 Supreme Court case decided in favor of a sexual harassment victim. Hirshman’s analysis of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and Bill Clinton’s treatment of Monica Lewinsky take Democrats to task for their uneven record on women’s issues: Joe Biden, she writes, failed utterly in his duty as committee chair at the Thomas hearing, while Clinton took advantage of Lewinsky’s naiveté and his own position of power. The book’s second half focuses on the online feminist activism that facilitated the eruption of #MeToo, including a breakdown of the New York Times and New Yorker reporting on Harvey Weinstein, and ends with the 2018 confirmation hearing for Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh, portrayed as an “eerie reenactment” of the Thomas hearing. Those seeking a tightly constructed narrative about how #MeToo became a cultural phenomenon will find it here, along with a celebration of the bold women who stood up for themselves to earn legal victories against harassment.

Hirshman's nuanced exploration of the legal, cultural, and political aspects of sexual abuse and harassment in the U.S. finds a lively and wise guide in narrator Carrington MacDuffie. She speaks precisely in a slightly husky voice that draws in listeners. Her tone and emphasis bring home Hirshman's points even though MacDuffie isn't emotionalizing her narration. Hirshman explores some of the most renowned precedents in sexual assault and harassment--from the inclusion of sex in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Clarence Thomas Senate hearings and the Monica Lewinsky scandal through the #MeToo movement. L.E. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine