Why Don't You Just Talk to Him?

"In this extraordinary book, political philosopher Kathleen Arnold draws on feminist theory, personal experience and a wealth of research to show how family courts use Enlightenment values of rationality, mutuality, consent and egalitarianism to depoliticize women's claims of abuse, mask the injustices to which they've been subjected, perpetuate their condition of 'rightlessness, ' and further entrench status quo gender roles and structures of subordination. A game-changer." --Evan Stark, author of Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life "This book is essential reading for progressive social scientists seeking a rich theoretical understanding of violence against women. It is also a refreshing departure from analyses that reduce this harm to solely a property of the individual. Indeed, Kathleen R. Arnold provides us with a groundbreaking way of interpreting one of the world's most compelling social problems." --Walter S. DeKeseredy, Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences, Director of the Research Center on Violence, and Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University "In her new book Kathleen Arnold reveals deep contradictions in America's approach to domestic abuse. These contradictions strip abused women of their effective rights to self-defense and unfettered movement-two preconditions of democratic liberty. Arnold deftly maps our collective blind spots on this topic. Moreover, the insights she offers are important for creating new responses to domestic abuse that would be more in keeping with our cherished political ideals of justice and equality." --Edwina Barvosa, University of California, Santa Barbara

Kathleen R. Arnold is Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at DePaul University.

Introduction: Why Don't You Just Talk to Him? The Politics of Domestic Abuse ; Chapter 1: The Politics of Abuse and Realism ; Chapter 2: The Context of the Problem ; Chapter 3: Domestic Abuse and the Limits of Communication (Foucault, Habermas and Beyond) ; Chapter 4: The Enlightenment and Violence ; Chapter 5: Conclusion ; Acknowledgments ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index