Challenging Liberalism: Feminism as Political Critique. By Lisa H. Schwartzman. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2006. 224p. $45.00.

In this book, Schwartzman argues that liberalism's methodological individualism and its neutrality through abstraction from social contexts and relations of power render it a questionable approach for those who would challenge the oppression of women or, by extension, of other traditionally subordinated groups. She instead advocates a feminist methodology based on ways that individuals are often embedded in a social context characterized by power and domination. She would not have us jettison concepts such as rights, equality, liberty, and autonomy, but would have us reformulate them by attending to perspectives and contexts that help us to avoid the pitfalls of liberalism.