Susan C. Faludi's journalistic and authorial work critically examines societal phenomena, particularly focusing on feminism and the impact of economic shifts on human lives. Her analyses are characterized by a deep understanding of the complex interplay between personal narratives and broader social and economic forces. Faludi strives to uncover the hidden mechanisms that shape our lives, highlighting the human costs of major economic and political processes. Her writing is known for its insightfulness and its ability to spark important public discourse.
In the summer of 2004 I set out to investigate someone I scarcely knew, my father. The project began with a grievance, the grievance of a daughter whose parent had absconded from her life. I was in pursuit of a scofflaw, an artful dodger who had skipped out on so many things - obligation, affection, culpability, contrition. I was preparing an indictment, amassing discovery for a trial. But somewhere along the line, the prosecutor became a witness
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction, this controversial, thought-provoking, and timely book is "as groundbreaking as Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique." -- Newsweek.
In this original examination of America's post-9/11 culture, journalist Faludi shines a light on the country's psychological response to the attacks of that terrible day. Turning her observational powers on the media, popular culture, and political life, Faludi unearths a barely acknowledged societal drama shot through with baffling contradictions. Why, she asks, did our culture respond to an assault against American global dominance with a frenzied summons to restore "traditional" manhood, marriage, and maternity? Why did we react as if the hijackers had targeted not a commercial and military edifice but the family home and nursery? The answer, she finds, lies in a historical anomaly unique to the American experience: the nation was forged in traumatizing assaults by nonwhite "barbarians" on town and village. That humiliation lies concealed under a myth of cowboy bluster and feminine frailty, which is reanimated whenever threat and shame looms.--From publisher description.