"An exhilarating book about an exhilarating (and catchy!) piece of our popular culture."
—
Rebecca Traister, author of Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women
on When We Were Free to Be
"The 1972 record album and illustrated book, Free To Be You…and Me, which this new volume memorializes, offered gender-neutral stories sung or told by celebrities of the day...Contributors to that classic understandably take pride here in what they accomplished. Marlo Thomas, who conceived of the idea behind Free To Be, is here (heavily represented in the photographs), along with Ms. magazine cofounder Gloria Steinem, actor Alan Alda, and writer Deborah Siegel, whose “Dispatches from My Twins’ First Year” nicely captures the everyday quandaries of parents trying to be nonsexist. Rotskoff and Lovett include separate essays by social justice activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin and her daughters Robin Pogrebin and Abigail Pogrebin, thus providing distinct generational perspectives. General readers familiar with the original record or book, both still available, and researchers interested in social, gender, and media studies will appreciate this work."
—
Library Journal
on When We Were Free to Be
"How wonderful it is to see the paths taken by the younger contributors to this book—the ones who were children when Free to Be was first released. Reading about their journeys delighted and inspired me."
—
Marlo Thomas, from the Prologue
on When We Were Free to Be
"Free to Be...You and Me showed my daughters they had the power to lead their own dreams. Now, in passionate and touching personal accounts, When We Were Free to Be shows how profoundly this one book has empowered an entire generation."
—
Gloria Feldt, past president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and author of No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power
on When We Were Free to Be
"Like the children's classic that inspired it, When We Were Free to Be is a groundbreaking cultural critique wrapped in an inspiring, funny, and creative package. It's filled with incisive reflections on the long-lasting impact of Free to Be and the legacy of feminism. Nothing like it exists."
—
Christina Baker Kline, author and editor of novels and nonfiction books, including Bird in Hand and the forthcoming Orphan Train
on When We Were Free to Be
"Free to Be was a declaration of independence for children's dreams, unshackled by archaic stereotypes that had once seemed timeless truths. ... This marvelous collection reminds us of that paradigm shift, still gently iconoclastic, while reminding us how far we have yet to go."
—
Michael Kimmel, author of The Gendered Society
on When We Were Free to Be
"A moving reminder that the women's movement was and is ardently pro-child. These fascinating reminiscences and timely essays about what still needs doing to make our children truly 'free to be' will have you singing the songs again--or discovering the joy of learning them."
—
Stephanie Coontz, author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s
on When We Were Free to Be
"[A] stunning examination of the cultural impact of Marlo Thomas's classic record album and book ... Riveting and timely."
—
Steven Mintz, Columbia University, author of Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood
on When We Were Free to Be
LORI ROTSKOFF is a cultural historian, writer, and teacher. She first discovered her passion for women’s history and literature as an undergraduate at Northwestern University. After working for a year at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, DC, she entered graduate school in American Studies at Yale, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1999. She has taught undergraduates at Yale and Sarah Lawrence College, and currently offers seminar classes for adults at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, where she has taught since 2005. She lives in Larchmont, New York with her husband and two sons.
Lori Rotskoff is co-editor, with Laura L. Lovett, of the anthology When We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children’s Classic and the Difference It Made, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2012. Her previous book, Love on the Rocks: Men, Women, and Alcohol in Post-World War II America(2002) was named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine and the American Library Association.
Lori’s book reviews have appeared in the Women’s Review of Books, the Chicago Tribune, Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, Reviews in American History, and the Journal of American History. She has received fellowships and research grants from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the American Historical Society, the Sophia Smith Collection, and the Schlesinger Library for the History of Women at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
