Judith Warner

In Perfect Madness, Warner seeks to answer the question, "Why are today's young mothers so stressed out?" Whether shuttling kids to "enriching" after-school activities or worrying about the quality of available child care, the women of Perfect Madness describe a life far out of balance. Warner delves into the genesis of current pressures on women, including political policies that hold sway in this country, the divide between rich and poor, and examines what can be done to restore balance to both women's lives and the parenting process.

Combining analysis of mainstream magazines, television shows, and pop culture with a thorough command of dominant ideas in recent psychological, social, and economic theory, Perfect Madness addresses cultural assumptions about women and motherhood and examines the forces that have shaped them. Warner delves deeply into the dream of American womanhood: the sense of limitless possibility, exposing the unique potential for unbounded self-creation.

A former special correspondent for Newsweek in Paris, Warner is a journalist who reviews books for The Washington Post and has written about politics and women's issues for magazines including The New Republic and Elle. She is the successful author of a range of nonfiction books, among them You Have the Power: How to Take Back Our Country and Restore Democracy to America (with Howard Dean) and the best-selling biography Hillary Clinton: The Inside Story.