Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: This book is a superlative sequel to the early Material World by Peter Menzel. I have read the earlier book so many times that when this new volume came out, I bought it immediately sight unseen. In this book, Faith D'Aluisio revisits 19 of the 30 families featured in the Material World to find out about the women's lives. The articles are organized alphabetically, together with short features on marriage, laundry, work, education, childcare, hair, food, water, and friends. At the back of the book, we find statistical charts about women, and a useful statistics glossary. Each article has an extended interview with the mother of the family that reveals parts of her life story as well as her attitudes towards topics such as marriage, child care, education, money, and possessions. The articles are of course filled with numerous color photos, large and small, of the women at work and with other family members. The Material World itself is a monumental book, but it was hard to go back to it after reading this book, where we find that the details presented in the Material World were so incredibly superficial. For example, family life for Maria dos Anjos Ferrerira in Brazil or Carmen Balderas de Castillo in Mexico isn't nearly as rosy as one might guess from looking at their original smiling photos in the Material World. On the other hand, Zhanna Kapralova from Russia continues to be a survivor. No matter how much you learn from the Material World, it will be far eclipsed by this book with its extended interviews and additional photographs.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: This book is a superlative sequel to the early Material World by Peter Menzel. I have read the earlier book so many times that when this new volume came out, I bought it immediately sight unseen. In this book, Faith D'Aluisio revisits 19 of the 30 families featured in the Material World to find out about the women's lives. The articles are organized alphabetically, together with short features on marriage, laundry, work, education, childcare, hair, food, water, and friends. At the back of the book, we find statistical charts about women, and a useful statistics glossary. Each article has an extended interview with the mother of the family that reveals parts of her life story as well as her attitudes towards topics such as marriage, child care, education, money, and possessions. The articles are of course filled with numerous color photos, large and small, of the women at work and with other family members. The Material World itself is a monumental book, but it was hard to go back to it after reading this book, where we find that the details presented in the Material World were so incredibly superficial. For example, family life for Maria dos Anjos Ferrerira in Brazil or Carmen Balderas de Castillo in Mexico isn't nearly as rosy as one might guess from looking at their original smiling photos in the Material World. On the other hand, Zhanna Kapralova from Russia continues to be a survivor. No matter how much you learn from the Material World, it will be far eclipsed by this book with its extended interviews and additional photographs.
Rating:
Summary: It really makes you think
Review: This book really made me think about my life as compared to the lives of women around the world. It was amazing to see how many people lived without electricity and education and all the things people in America and other developed countries take for granted. It reminds you how everyone has similar needs for love and freedom to be themselves, but how people all around the world are very different. When you're surfing the net, sometimes you don't think that there are women somewhere else pounding grain and tending their 7 children. This book was utterly fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: I think this book was one of the best books I have read!!
Review: This book was terrific. When I read the book MATERIAL WORLD, A GLOBAL FAMILY PORTRAIT, I thought there was no book like it that could be better. Now when I read it, all I wish is to have is WOMEN IN THE MATERIAL WORLD . I cannot believe how good it is. I recomend this book for all ages (I am 11).
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: When I first ordered this book and received it in the mail, after opening the box it came in, sat down right then and there "just to take a peek". Well, let's just say, my short "peek" turned into an interrupted 30 minutes! "Women in the Material World" certainly joins the ranks of "can't-put-down-and-can't-forget-about" books. It is a very worthy sequel to "Material World", in which women from some of the "Material World" families are looked at more closely. Perhaps the most special thing about this book is a long, personal, and intimate interview with each women. The women are surprisingly open in responding about their daily life, their children, their marriage, and their future hopes. "Women in the Material World" simply lets the women speak for themselves, and in the process, breaks down many stereotypes (who would have thought a 58-year Chinese woman would love farming much more than her traditional household duties?)and lets others remain (the secluded life of an Indian woman). Statistics for that country, quick facts about each woman, a brief write-up on conditions for women in each of their countries, and field notes from the photographer further enrich this amazing book. The women in this book will inspire you, challenge you, and never let you forget this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not culturally lacking afterall
Review: Women in the Material World was written to correct a defect the author percieved in the previous book The Material World: that the women of the families were neglected subjects by the interviews and photographers. Because the authors chose statically average families, unmarried women, homosexual women and women without children were not chosen--we (I call into one of the above catagories) are a minority and therefore to include us in the book would create a false impression. The questions and replies are not trite. It is almost impossible for those of us used to the unlimited possibilities open to many (but by no means all) to understand how cirumscribed the lives of the vast majoirty of men and women are. Lacking the opporunity to know or understand other ways of living, it is very hard for them to address anything but the day to day issues facing them. Yet the answers given the women in this book are thoughful, insightful and show great compassion. Here, in the US the words diversity and tolerance are bandied about--here is a book that begins to show how different we are in our understanding of ourselves, each other and our place in the world--and also how much we have in common. Now we a book about the most neglected group--Children in the Material World.
|
