The Women's History of the World

A woman led the storming of the Bastille; in fact, women in the French Revolution played prominent roles as agitators, revolutionaries and intellectuals. Yet history books written by men, as Miles ( The Fiction of Sex , etc.) observes, generally omit or downplay women's contributions. Providing a valuable counterbalance to conventional chronicles, this world history from a feminist perspective is eminently readable, provocative and full of fresh insights. Miles traces the decline of women's status, from the fall of the Great Mother cult, which flourished for perhaps 40,000 years, to the 20th century-mass media's role as an instrument of dominance, ``keeping women in line and training them to be everything a regular guy could ever hope for.'' She believes it is no coincidence that the witchcraft hysteria that swept medieval Europe paralleled an upsurge of women's political power. While making no pretense at comprehensiveness, Miles gives full play to the contemporary struggle for women's rights and the double burden women face as domestic nurturers and workers. Author tour. (Apr.)