A review by jhoiraartificer
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future (Updated With a New Epilogue) by Riane Eisler

1.0

This book is... an experience. While I understand where Ensler was coming from, her relationship with science is loose at best. She's attempting to make a scientific historical argument but her use of sources is... not good. I agree with her that the 'scientifically supported' (to be overbroad) "man the hunter" theories can have alternate explanation, but even given that, I could easily find other interpretations of the sources she cites and was not convinced. This book is extremely third wave feminism in its worst form... logical in historical context but maddening now. I wouldn't have finished it if it weren't required reading for a course I couldn't drop, so my roommate and I spent all our time shredding it. Interesting reading but ultimately far more mythohistorical than historical.