A Womens History of the Beatles

A groundbreaking addition to the bands endless bibliography that documents how female fans created, cultivated and continue to ensure the bands legacy -- Sibbie OSullivan * The Washington Post * This much-needed book shows us the mission-critical role of women in transforming four talented and ambitious young men into the Beatles, and the myriad ways the Beatles have, in turn, inspired and transformed the lives of women across three generations ... This book enhances our understanding of the entire phenomenonhow it happened, what it meant, and why it will continueby showing us three generations of women who heard, saw, felt, and embraced the permission and possibility the Beatles embodied. * Culture Sonar * A Womens History of the Beatles illuminates and stresses that how we tell stories matters, and the positions from which we tell them can affect the narratives that come forth ... [It's] historically minded, drawing on recollections from women whose lives both shaped and were shaped by the band, as well as forward-looking, considering the careers of women in various parts of the globe for whom The Beatles became a starting point for their own lifes work. * Louder Than War * [A]ll serious students of Beatles history should add this book to their reading lists. It is engaging and illuminating, shining new light on the underappreciated role that girls and women played in the history and legacy of The Beatles. * Beatlefan Magazine * With A Womens History of the Beatles, Christine Feldman-Barrett has authored arguably the most significant title in Beatles scholarship since Tune In (2013), the first volume in Mark Lewisohns groundbreaking biographical study of the group. ... A Womens History of the Beatles represents a fundamental, albeit long-neglected aspect of Beatles scholarship that, thanks to Feldman-Barretts trailblazing work, will be the fount of a host of new inquiries to come. -- Kenneth Womack * Rock and Music Studies * Womens history often involves a re-framing of the past, and in the field of popular music, curation, and analysis of the canon has usually been done by men. With this rich study across three generations, Feldman-Barrett shows how over time Beatlemania and Beatles culture has created a space for womens self-reflection, identity formation, and creative experimentation. An exciting contribution to womens history, popular music studies and our understanding of the Beatles. * Lucy OBrien, author of She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music * The number of existing texts on John, Paul, George, and Ringo is far too voluminous to list ... Feldman-Barretts contribution nonetheless leaps out as indispensable amidst the broad and in-depth stories that have already been told about The Beatles. -- Audrey J. Golden * Louder Than War * Everyone knows the basic Beatles' story... But this book does more than that. It flips the script and considers the role women played in the formation, popularity, image, personal lives and legacy of the Beatles and devotes 5 chapters to a specific strain of Beatle womenand how they shaped the Beatles. * Ugly Things Magazine * [H]er book is distinctive in charting both the bands role in womens lives and womens impact on the Beatles from the 1960s to the present. ... Christine Feldman-Barrett makes a compelling case that the Beatles belong to girls and women across social lines in distinct and important ways. * H-Soz-Kult * Christine Feldman-Barrett makes a compelling case that the Beatles belong to girls and women across social lines in distinct and important ways. Her book persuasively argues that to understand fully the Beatles phenomenon one of the defining cultural episodes of the twentieth century we must read it through the lens of gender. -- Julia Sneeringer, History Dept., Queens College CUNY, USA * H-Soz-Kult * In this exciting and illuminating account, Christine Feldman-Barrett looks

Christine Feldman-Barrett is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University, Australia, and is a member of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. She is the author of We are the Mods: A Transnational History of a Youth Subculture (2009), the first scholarly book dedicated to the history and global reach of Mod culture, and the editor of Lost Histories of Youth Culture (2015). She has published on topics of youth culture history in various collected volumes and in the Journal of Youth Studies, Space and Culture, Feminist Media Studies, and Popular Music and Society.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introducing A Womens History of the Beatles 1. Remember Me: Stories from Merseyside 2. With the Beatles: A Fan History 3. Dont Blame it On Yoko: Wives and Girlfriends in the Beatles Fairy Tale 4. Free as a Bird: Music-Making and the Liberatory Beatlesque 5. Think For Yourself: Entrepreneurs and Intellectuals Conclusion: Beatles History, Womens Lives Notes Bibliography Index