The Chinese Mother Manifesto

Silly, vain creature that I am, I am reprinting word for word Jesse Kornbluth’s introduction to my guest Head Butler essay about Amy Chua’s The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (book, Kindle):

As I write, there have been 200,000 Google entries about Amy Chua — and her book has only been out for a few weeks! After all that blather, why should you read one more take on Chua? Because — alone among commentators, it seems — Barbara Finkelstein did her homework. She not only read Chua’s controversial new book, she went back and looked into her previous writing.

Writers eager to score points on Chua overlook one inconvenient fact: She’s not a crackpot or an exploiter, she’s a Professor of Law at Yale. Not a small credit in the yearbook of life. Her previous books are serious and learned. She’s not someone you dismiss in a phrase.

So, whether you’re a parent or not, you’ll want to read on. Because, like Chua, Barbara Finkelstein says something surprising and provocative. The difference: Ms. Finkelstein says it better.

Read the essay on Head Butler.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Advertisement