Many young women 'long to put the clock back to the post-war years when life seemed prettier and nicer'. In this book Jessica Mann demolishes such preconceptions about their mothers' or grandmothers' young days, showing that in reality life was uglier and nastier. Born just before WW2, she grew up in the post-war era of austerity, restrictions and hypocrisy, before anyone even dreamed of Women's Lib. The Fifties Mystique is both a personal memoir and a polemic. In explaining the lives of pre-feminists to the post-feminists of today, Jessica Mann discusses the period's very different attitudes to sex, childbirth, motherhood and work, describes how she and other young women lived in that distant world with its forgotten restrictions and warns against taking hard-won rights for granted.
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'Jessica Mann analyses the decade with forensic precision - stripping away the rose-coloured specs for good' --Daily Mail
'thoughtful and emphatic ... a richly readable and persuasive piece of work' --Spectator
'She recalls the grime of the 50s: endless stinking nappy buckets; smog; inadequate washing facilities; body odour whenever people were crowded together. She recalls boredom and isolation, and suspects both the child-rearing experts and the government of a concerted push to get mothers back home after the war, so that there would be jobs for the returning 'boys'. And she recalls the unacceptability of talking, or sometimes even knowing, about sex, female anatomy, and cancer. She is bang on' --Baroness Neuberger, Jewish Chronicle
'thoughtful and emphatic ... a richly readable and persuasive piece of work' --Spectator
'She recalls the grime of the 50s: endless stinking nappy buckets; smog; inadequate washing facilities; body odour whenever people were crowded together. She recalls boredom and isolation, and suspects both the child-rearing experts and the government of a concerted push to get mothers back home after the war, so that there would be jobs for the returning 'boys'. And she recalls the unacceptability of talking, or sometimes even knowing, about sex, female anatomy, and cancer. She is bang on' --Baroness Neuberger, Jewish Chronicle
About the Author
Jessica Mann has been a controversial commentator and critic since first appearing Radio 4's Any Questions in the 1970s. She recently attracted worldwide publicity arising from her comments about explicit violence in crime fiction. She is the author of twenty crime novels and three non-fiction books and a freelance journalist, whose features, weekly columns, numerous travel articles and book reviews have appeared in most national newspapers, weeklies and glossy magazines. She is the crime fiction reviewer of the Literary Review. She has held a series of public appointments as chairwoman or member of committees 'quangos' concerned with the NHS, Utility Regulation, Town and Country Planning, Employment Tribunals, the Arts etc. She is also a broadcaster, having appeared on such programmes as Question Time, Any Questions, Round Britain Quiz, Start The Week, Stop The Week to name but a few. She divides her time between Cornwall, where she lives with her husband, the archaeologist Professor Charles Thomas, and London. She has two sons, two daughters and eleven grandchildren.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By Liz Nassim
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book tells the post-Feminist generation what it was really like in the fifties, why we needed Feminism so very badly, and why we must do everything in our power to protect it.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By CarolineJ
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In this fascinating book, Jessica Mann gives an account of what life was like for women in the 1950s. It makes for compelling reading and I can't imagine any woman, after having read this book, express a yearning to return to those days and be a "captive wife." It is hard for those of us born after the 1960s to imagine what it must have been like: limited educational and work opportunities, complete financial dependence upon your husband, the devastating consequences of a pregnancy outside of marriage and the eternal domestic grind without the labour saving devices we take for granted today are just some of the aspects which Mann covers.
I read this book with a mixture of fascination, horror and a heartfelt appreciation for the times I live in today. Highly recommended for women of all ages.
I read this book with a mixture of fascination, horror and a heartfelt appreciation for the times I live in today. Highly recommended for women of all ages.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By M Thomas
Format:Paperback
A real eye opener for those who take today's equality of the sexes very much as a given. Vivid descriptions of pre-machine drudgery and the boredom of the diurnal round, of the ignorance brought about by prudery- of how recently things were so very different, and less good, for women. A lovely read, in short chunks or as a whole. The author's voice comes across loud and clear and determined to correct nostalgic rose-tinted views of those bad old days.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reliving the fifties
A fascinating read for one who grew up in the fifties, as I did, and who remembers everything clearly but without questioning at the time.
Published 27 days ago by W. M. Hartwig-compton
4.0 out of 5 stars
Oddly readable and entertaining
Oddly readable and entertaining? Yes I was not expecting this to be as absorbing or good fun to read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Scribe
3.0 out of 5 stars
book
Cannot comment - was a Christmas gift for an elderley lady who has not yet got around to reading it
Published 4 months ago by Jo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Those were the days, oh boy........
Jessica Mann's book is fascinating and everything she says so true. Born in the late Forties, I was lucky to be brought up on the other side of the pond in the late Fifties and... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Morven Tough
5.0 out of 5 stars
An embarassing reminder!
I was born just after the war and I am mortified to be reminded of the limited hygiene we took for granted! Read more
Published 12 months ago by John Bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars
So much for the "good old days"
Writer Jessica Mann -- previously best known for her literary journalism and crime novels -- takes a look back at what it was like to be a young woman in the 1950s. Read more
Published 12 months ago by F. Taylor
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