Why History Matters: Life and Thought

We read first of Lerner's coming to consciousness as a Jewish woman, of her experiences in Nazi Germany, as well as her decision to become a historian. The second section focuses on more professional concerns. Included here is a fascinating essay on nonviolent resistance, tracing the idea from the Quakers, such as Mary Dyer, to abolitionists, to Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience, then across the sea to Tolstoy and Gandhi, before finally returning to America during the civil rights movement of the 1950s. The highlight of the final section of the book is Lerner's bold and innovative look at the issues of class and race as they relate to gender. Why History Matters contains some of the most significant thinking on history of this distinguished historian.

The position of women and other oppressed groups is of paramount interest to Lerner, and the longest essay in this collection deals with her theories of patriarchy as the father of all discriminatory systems. Class and race are other issues that concern Lerner, and they crop up again here in her discussion of the differences between black and white women's views of feminism. Sex, class, and race--all the hot-flash points at work in today's society--are accounted for in Why History Matter. There are connections, Lerner argues, between the violence, poverty, racism, and sexism we see all around us and the attitudes and events of the past. She has spent her life tracing these causes and effects, encouraged by her belief that understanding the past ensures a better future. And that, Gerda Lerner insists, is why history matters.