The inevitability of patriarchy Book

Steven Goldberg (born 1941) was president of the sociology department at City College of New York from 1988 until his retirement; he has also written Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance,When Wish Replaces Thought: Why So Much of What You Believe Is False, etc. He wrote in the Preface of this 1973 book, "This work is a theory... I am well aware that this theory reaches conclusions that many readers will find most unpalatable... I believe I can demonstrate that all alternative theories are either internally contradictory or disprovable with the evidence provided by anthropological investigation... No doubt the tone of this book will strike some readers as being exceedingly strong... I invoke this tone only when I focus either on logical contradiction or a misrepresentation of empirical data that could not possibly be defended as being merely alternative interpretation..." Later, he explains, "This book is... an attempt to discover why these three institutions [patriarchy, male attainment, and male dominance] are universal and to assess the possibility of their being inevitable." (Pg. 73) ( Amazon customer)