Jane Fonda's Words of Politics and Passion

by Jane Fonda, Mary Hershberger (Editor), V (formerly Eve Ensler) (Foreword by)

Jane Fonda’s Words of Politics and Passion collects Fonda’s most stirring public statements from 1970 through 2005, in speeches, interviews, and articles from over thirty years of tireless campaigning against war and militarism and on behalf of women’s rights, women’s health, feminism, and the environment. Historian Mary Hershberger “has unearthed a treasure trove,” according to Ms. magazine. “Whether discussing peace, feminism or girls’ empowerment, [Fonda] is thoughtful, courageous and always committed to the betterment of others.”

In 1970, at the height of an award-winning acting career, Jane Fonda took a sharp turn into politics. She would go on to play an influential role in the anti–Vietnam War movement and in nearly every subsequent movement for social justice in the United States.

Hershberger has culled Fonda’s words from a range of little-known and previously inaccessible sources, including the declassified FBI files obtained by Fonda herself in a federal lawsuit, and from antiwar movement archives that have never been made available to a general public.

161 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2006

About the author

Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actress (Best Actress in 1971 for Klute and in 1978 for Coming Home), author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes over 45 films and crucial work on behalf of political causes such as women’s rights, Native Americans, and the environment. She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner, Honorary Palme d’Or honoree, 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award winner, and the 2019 recipient of the Stanley Kubrick Excellence in Film Award as part of BAFTA’s Britannia Awards. Fonda is currently in production for the seventh and final season of Grace & Frankie, which will be Netflix’s longest running original series. It is for her work on the series that she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2017. She was last seen on the big screen in Paramount’s comedy, Book Club in which she starred alongside Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen. Fonda also premiered Jane Fonda in Five Acts, a documentary for HBO chronicling her life and activism, at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special in 2019. Jane celebrated her 80th birthday by raising $1 million for each of her nonprofits, Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential and The Women’s Media Center. Currently, Jane is leading the charge on Fire Drill Fridays, a national movement to protest government inaction on climate change. Her latest book, “What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair To Action,” details her personal journey with the movement and provides solutions for communities to combat the climate crisis, will be released on September 8 via Penguin Press.

Reviews

[Phil Devereux · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a woman!!

[Cynthia Bemis Abrams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book if you're looking for original source material in written form. True it captures scripts from speeches Jane has given over the years, that were not covered by the press. So from a content perspective, it holds some fascinating material. It feels thrown together, format-wise