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I started doing interviews in September 1994 and finished the first draft of the manuscript in October 1998. 1 revisited old feminist warriors, some of
whom I am proud to count among my most intimate friends, and I sought out and spoke with many others whose fantastic contributions I'd never even known about. And wow, did I learn a lot!
The women's movement
exploded so rapidly in the late sixties and early seventies that no single person could possibly grasp the entire picture while it was happening. It was an honor to play a role in the most significant revolution of
the twentieth century, and it was an honor, and a challenge of another order, to fashion an honest narrative out of the sturm und drang of those wonderful, vivid, chaotic years.
If you are familiar with my
other writing, you know that I never shrink from taking a controversial position. IN OUR TIME: Memoir of Revolution is not movement hagiography, nor is it "a balanced history" written by someone with
access to library archives but far removed from the actual events. Serious ideological clashes are not papered over, and difficult, complex personalities are not airbrushed into charming, varnished portraits. I
figured there was only one way I could tell the movement's story, and that was to summon the spirit of the times, put my mind on the memory channel, and GO.
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