BOOKS
HE WALKED THROUGH WALLS
“This is the poignant and often suspenseful story of a man who experienced and understood the horror of war from a very young age. As a teenager, during WWI, he narrowly escaped death and then went on, against the odds, to survive two more European wars. His experiences bring to life the motivation and commitment of people like me who speak out, write, and even risk imprisonment through civil disobedience to oppose unnecessary and immoral wars.”
–Rep. Bob Edgar (D-PA, Ret.), President, Common Cause; former General Secretary, National Council of Churches.
“This is a different kind of survivor story. Its hero did not survive Auschwitz, nor did he spend the war years hiding in an attic or in a forest. After a difficult but successful exodus from Europe, by mid 1941, he and his family arrived in New York and spent most of WWII living on Central Park West.
Before reaching the age of twenty, he had already survived two life threatening situations. These early experiences no doubt contributed to the exceptional foresight, survival skills, and courage which led to his taking steps as early as 1936 to facilitate his family’s exodus from Europe in case of war. An inspiring success story!”
–Tania Grossinger, Author, Growing Up at Grossinger's
“For some, memories of the Holocaust are focused on their or their family's suffering. For some, those memories become a commitment to the Jewish people. And for some, they become a teaching toward the broadest circle -- peacemaking and honoring of all "the others" in our lives and in the world. In this book, Myriam Miedzian tells the moving story of how her father survived three twentieth century wars. We also learn how his harrowing experiences, the loss of her extended family in the Holocaust, and her own childhood broken by war have become conjoined for her with the pain of the world, and how her broken heart has become an open heart.”
–Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director, The Shalom Center; author, The Tent of Abraham and Godwrestling — Round 2.
CRITICAL PRAISE FROM THE COVER OF
BOYS will be BOYS
"An important, ground-breaking exploration of how and why American males are increasingly turning to violence and what we, as individuals and as a society, can do about it. Lucid, well researched, and highly practical, this very accessible book will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, including parents and teachers. Miedzian convincingly demonstrates, drawing heavily on research studies in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, how violence can be greatly reduced in our society."
–Booklist
"Myriam Miedzian is what Carol Gilligan was for the '80s, Germaine Greer for the '7 Os and Betty Friedan for the '60s-a thinker whose work is destined to have a transformative effect on America's political and social consciousness."
–LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN, Author of Deborah, Golda and Me
"Boys Will Be Boys is a powerful book, offering many insights into why America's crime rates lead the industrialized world."
–Los Angeles Times
" Excellent. A strongly argued indictment of our cultural stereotypes of masculinity."
–SUZANNE GORDON, Boston Globe
"She does demonstrate beautifully ... that American culture asks an awful lot of parents. We're trying to raise children who are self-reliant, inquisitive, and sensitive to others' feelings, when toys, television, and video games pay unblinking homage to macho toughness in the extreme."
–Parenting Magazine
Generations: A Century of Women Speak about Their Lives - Comments from the Cover
“This is the first book to show the sweeping change among American women in this century, and to do so in an irresistible, intimate and populist way.”
–GLORIA STEINEM
"If asked to pick the book describing life for the twentieth-century woman, 1'd without question choose Generations. A uniquely organized oral history, Generations gives us voices far more gripping, real, and at times simply more unbelievable than any novel's. Many times I came to the close of a vignette and felt somewhat stunned:
I wanted to go on, to hear what happened next. This is a book to be shared among all women, and among men, too."
–BETSY ISRAEL, author of Grown-Up Fast
"Women listening to women understand why every detail matters. Miedzian and Malinovich recognize, too, that the best of oral histories are mesmerizing not just because they present a panoramic picture of the past made up of individual snapshots bur because they reveal how much startling drama each 'ordinary' life encompasses. Readers, I think, will soon start to forget that these narratives were in essence the fascinating gossip of strangers and will recast them gradually in their own memories as the confidences of flesh-and-blood friends."
–MICHELE SLUNG, author of Momilies: As My Mother Used to Say
"Generations is an extraordinary record of the lives of American women over the course of the twentieth century. Written in their own words-often moving, always enlightening-Generations tells us both how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. Essential reading for historians, sociologists, women's studies specialists, and all those who want to understand the recent evolution of the American family and the complex fabric of women's lives."
–RUTH SIDEL, author of Keeping Women and Children Last
"Perhaps more than anything, women chafe from simply not being heard. This outstanding volume gives voice to the generations of American women in all walks of life. Especially important to me are the stories of working women-well-to-do volunteers and textile mill workers, doctors and secretaries, cab drivers and teachers. Their matter-of-fact confidence and dignity in their work echoes through the century and speaks to us today. Their first-person stories are an invaluable resource."
–KAREN NUSSBAUM, Director, Women's Working Department, AFL-CIO
Contributions to Anthologies Include:
"Herbert Marcuse In 1978: An Interview" in MARXISM, REVOLUTION, AND UTOPIA: COLLECTED PAPERS OF HERBERT MARCUSE, vol. 6 ( University of California, 2014)
A Four Way Discussion of Manning Up by Kay Hymowitz in NEW GIRL ORDER: ARE MEN IN DECLINE? (Cato Institute 2012 Kindle Edition)
"Beyond The Masculine Mystique," in GENDER VIOLENCE, edited by Laura O'Toole et al (New York University, 2007);
"Boys Will Be Boys," & "Sports: When Winning Is the Only Thing, Can Violence Be Far Away," in VIOLENCE AND GENDER, edited by P.R. Gilbert & K.K. Ely (Prentice Hall, 2004);
"How Rape Is Encouraged in American Boys and What We Can Do to Stop It," in TRANSFORMING A RAPE CULTURE, edited by Emilie Buchwald et al (Milkweed, 2004, revised edition);
"Learning to Be Violent," in ENDING THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE, edited by Einat Peled et al (Sage, 1994);
"Real Men, Wimps, and National Security," in RETHINKING PEACE, edited by Elias & Jennifer Turpin (Lynne Rienner, 1994);
"Father Hunger," in WOMEN RESPOND TO THE MEN'S MOVEMENT, edited by Kay Leigh Hagan (Harper San Francisco, 1992).