Phyllis Schlafly: The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority

by Carol Felsenthal

Book Overview

Phyllis Schlafly; the Sweetheart of the Silent Majority by Carol Felsenthal 1982 Paperback This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895268736
• ISBN13: 9780895268730
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Biography of an Authentic Twentieth Century American Heroine

As a post-WWII baby-boomer, I lived through all of Mrs. Schlafly's controversial public life. Regardless of the sour grapes in Beth T's review, this book is an excellent biography of an authentic twentieth century heroine. Both admired and scorned, Mrs. Schlafly lived out her personal convictions with drive and determination. She put her family first, spending the first 21 years of her marriage establishing a home and personally pre-schooling her six children by teaching each one to read before entering public school. An author and co-author of a number of books and pamphlets, as well as a brilliant organizer and public orator, Mrs. Schlafly accomplished more by 9 a.m. than most people complete in an entire day! She put herself through college, while working a full-time job testing ammo in a wartime factory, and later returned to school, where she was conferred a law degree. Mrs. Schlafly ran for public office twice, and spearheaded the successful defeat of the ERA Amendment, a document she believed to be one of the most pernicious and thoroughly dangerous documents in American history. Time has substantiated her assessment. Author Carol Felsenthal is to be commended for this outstanding biography. Though her personal feminist ideology opposes Mrs. Schlafly's worldview, she rarely allowed that to show up in this book. That is as amazing as it is commendable. For those interested in other books featuring Phyllis Schlafly, try "Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism," by Donald T. Critchlow. His book covers Mrs. Schlafly from more of an historical and political viewpoint.

[Great Book]

I'm not sure if the other reviewer actually read the book because if she did she would have known that Mrs. Schlafly had 5 adult children and a child in high school when she finished her law degree at Harvard. This book chronicles Mrs. Schlafly's extraordinary life. She put herself through college in the 40's by working nights testing weapons for the military. She met her husband at 25, (an age that most women of the day might have been considered spinsters), when he read a political analysis and he thought he better meet the author who he assumed was a man. She ran for congress twice and she wrote a book which sold over 3 million copies, etc. Her success was rooted in her philosophy that nobody could keep her down unless she let them. She never allowed herself to think that she was being handicapped by society and therefore she wasn't. It's a healthy attitude, devoid of the bitterness that comes with seeing yourself as a victim. She was also almost unfathomably focused and an imitable master of time management. She kept all 6 of her kids home until they were 6 so she could teach them to read herself. During this period I believe she also published several books. I'm a minority woman, and a graduate from the most liberal school in the country. I do not consider myself easily convinced and I definitely didn't have a conservative bone in my body. This book really changed the way I see things. Here we have one of the most self-accomplished women of the 20th century and almost nobody has heard of her. Nobody knows what she's done because she apparently wasn't playing for the right team. If she had whined and complained about how hard her life was and entered politics on that basis she would probably be president. The fact that she didn't speaks volumes about her character.

Spokeswoman as Professional Hypocrite

I really love this book, for it exposes Phyllis for what she really is, a professional hypocrite. This woman, who did everything in her power to defeat the ERA, was raised in a home where her mother was the chief breadwinner. As an adult, she married an attorney who made a decent living, and while raising numerous children, could afford to employ full-time domestic help while she completed law school and pursued various political positions. In other words, the same person who told American women to be satisfied with the domestic side of life and second-class citizenship enjoyed the fruits of the pampered, powerful class, and was hardly ever home! Although this reviewer has a negative attitude toward Phyllis as a traitor and anti-feminist, one can appreciate Ms. Felsenthal's compelling depiction of Phyllis's incredible stamina, which is something not all of us are blessed with. Most people can only do so much and need at least eight hours of sleep a night. To paraphrase Erma Bombeck, I am one of those moms who people won't call a great mom. but I spend a lot of time with my kids, play poker with them and eat cookies right out of the box.