Against Our Will

Brownmiller's classic work pulls back centuries of damaging lies and misrepresentations to reveal how rape has been accepted in all societies and how it continues to affect women's lives today. A keen and prescient analyst and a detailed historian, Brownmiller discusses the consequences of rape in biblical times, rape as an accepted spoil of war, as well as a child of molestation, marital rape, and date rape (a term she coined). In lucid, persuasive prose, Brownmiller uses her experience as a journalist to create a definitive, devastating work of lasting social importance. 480 pp.

"Chilling and monumental...Deserves a place next to those rare books which force us to change the way we feel about what we know."
—The New York Times Book Review

"The most comprehensive study of rape ever offered to the public...It forces readers to take a fresh look at their own attitudes toward the devastating crime."—Newsweek

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. The Mass Psychology of Rape: An Introduction; 2. In the Beginning Was the Law; 3. War: World War I; World War II; Bangladesh; Vietnam; 4. Riots, Pogroms and Revolutions; The American Revolution; Pogroms; The Mormon Persecutions; Mob Violence Against Blacks: The KKK; Mob Violence Against Whites: The Congo; 5.Two Studies in American History; Indians; Slavery; Addendum: The Cliometricians; 6.The Police-Blotter Rapist; Pairs, Groups and Gangs; "Gratuitous Acts, Extravagant Defilements"; Rape-Murder; 7. A Question of Race; 8.Power: Institution and Authority; Prison Rape: The Homosexual Experience; Police Rape; The Sexual Abuse of Children; 9.The Myth of the Heroic Rapist; 10.Victims: The Setting; The Conscious Rape Fantasy; The Beautiful Victim; "Blonde Ex-Showgirl Slain in Hotel Suite"; Confessions: "He Made Me Do It!"; 11.Victims: The Crime; 12. Women Fight Back; Acknowledgments; Source; Notes; Index