This pathbreaking edited volume combines a classic article with 10 original essays to present a comparative examination of the women's movement. As the title indicates, analyses largely revolve around the U.S. case, with comparison carried out over time or in relation to cases in other countries. In bringing together this group of prominent and emerging scholars of women's movements to place the United States in international perspective, this volume works to fill a large gap in the literature.

This set of essays is effectively geared toward two audiences. Because of the combination of rich detail and sophisticated yet accessible development of theory, it is ideally suited for courses on gender, politics, and social movements. At the same time, social movement scholars will find a generous array of top-notch theory building based upon new material derived from primary sources.

In her introductory chapter, volume editor Lee Ann Banaszak lays out three theoretical concepts that orient the essays that follow: resource mobilization, political opportunities, and ideational factors (i.e., frames, discourse, identity, and culture). Banaszak rightly emphasizes that these concepts often causally intersect rather than function independently, an argument confirmed by many of the chapters (p. 17). The importance of preexisting communications networks, as argued in Freeman's classic essay “The Origins of the Women's Liberation Movement” republished in this volume, is also a theme in many of the chapters (p. 27). Using the Banaszak and Freeman chapters as keystones, volume contributors build theory relating to the causes and consequences of the women's movement, producing an unusually rich and cohesive volume.

All of the nine original substantive chapters have merits, yet several deserve special mention. Nancy Whittier presents a brilliant comparison of the second and third waves of the U.S. women's movement, providing new insights through which to better understand and place into perspective this latter wave. She argues that both the radical “younger branch” of the second wave and the third wave are best understood as grassroots organizations that share a nonbureaucratic approach to many of the same issues of concern to women, despite an otherwise significant political generational divide.

Lisa Baldez and Celeste Montoya Kirk compare Chile and the United States for a sophisticated inquiry into the conditions triggering women's collective action. They point to two changes in political opportunities. First, a shift in political context generates a new rhetorical framework conducive to women's coalition building. Second, a common “precipitant” prompts women's mobilization—the perceived failure in both cases of male officials to act on women's concerns (p. 136). These authors are particularly adept at making clear the interdependence of their guiding theoretical concepts.

In another intriguing case, Carol Nechemias compares three women's movements within Russia, examining each case in terms of resource mobilization, political opportunity structure, and cultural framing. The result is a fascinating exploration of these theoretical concepts that is enhanced by rich empirical detail.

In the U.S. cases examined here, “the women's movement” refers to the contemporary feminist movement, including both its second and third waves. However, as many of the “global” chapters on Chile (Baldez and Kirk), Japan (Gelb), and Russia (Nechemias) show, women collectively organize over an array of issues not limited to feminist concerns with citizenship and equality. For example, women in Russia and Chile mobilized in response to militarized violence against their children. A notable difference between this U.S.-centric volume and studies that are more broadly comparative is the lack of theoretical attention to nongovernmental organizations. The expanding attention to NGOs in the literature of the comparative politics and international relations subfields is rapidly eclipsing attention to social movements. In this volume, the term NGO does not appear in the index, although Nechemias' chapter on Russian women's organizing clearly demonstrates their importance.

This suggests a limitation in this volume's approach. The first half of the book deals exclusively with U.S. cases. In the second half, the U.S. women's movement is compared to Chile (Baldez and Kirk), Russia (Nechemias), Japan (Gelb), and England and Ireland (Rohlinger and Meyer) in search of common causal pathways across all women's movements. However, because the questions, terminology, and foci themselves arise primarily from U.S. research as opposed to a more global reading, the volume misses the opportunity to enrich American politics with the vast array of research on women's organizing outside of the United States. Future research would do well to build upon the findings in this volume by comparing the causes and consequences of self-proclaimed feminist movements with those of other types of women's movements. Furthermore, what are the implications of the “NGO-ization” of women organizing globally? Has this process impacted the U.S. women's movement? More importantly, as suggested by Banaszak in her concluding chapter, how has the international activism and funding of the U.S. women's movement impacted women overseas (p. 221)? The U.S. women's movement, with its relatively significant pool of resources, access to media, and ability to impact foreign policy, can impact women's lives in other societies. This volume has taken great strides in understanding the domestic consequences to U.S. women's activism. The next step, urgently needed, is to better understand the international consequences of U.S. women's overseas activism. Does microcredit to poor women empower them or entrench their marginalization (p. 221)? Does a focus on female genital cutting or forced veiling serve to liberate women from particularly brutal patriarchies or suggest a type of feminist imperialism that ignores these women's own understanding of their interests?

Admittedly, such concerns are beyond the scope of this volume. All the contributors are to be commended for sticking closely to the questions and concepts laid out by Banaszak. Even though each essay stands well on its own, when taken together the effect is even greater, sure to inspire future projects ranging from senior honor's theses to collaborative research grants.