SOURCE: A review of Backlash, in Christian Century, February 19, 1992, pp. 198-99.

In the following review, Rebeck offers a positive assessment of Backlash.

A recent article in the “Style” section of the Chicago Tribune exemplified the power of the backlash. The article reminded readers that “a couple of years ago … newspapers claimed a single woman had more chances of being kidnapped by a terrorist than getting married.” Now, the article went on, the statistics have turned around.

Not exactly, Susan Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Wall Street Journal, would say. In fact, the statistics never indicated such dire odds for single women seeking marriage. This “news” item that was widely picked up by newspapers, magazines and television and radio shows was based on a very flawed preliminary study reported offhandedly in a Valentine’s Day article in the Stamford Advocate in 1986. Though sociologists who examined the study...