227 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:4.42

Allan G. Johnson’s Followers (65)

Allan’s Bookshelves

to-read (0)
currently-reading (1)
read (227)
biography-memoir (18)
fiction (113)
fiction-poetry-drama (127)
inner-work (17)
social-issues (66)

Allan’s Friends (30)

Susan Iverson

2,354 books | 130 friends

Michael Bassett

199 books | 163 friends

Ginny

1,190 books | 50 friends

Annie

734 books | 18 friends

Sam Diener

466 books | 502 friends

301 books | 21 friends

Anita

613 books | 28 friends

Fivel

1,154 books | 274 friends

More friends…

Allan G. Johnson

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.agjohnson.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Member Since

January 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/agjohnson

edit data

Allan G. Johnson is a novelist, nonfiction writer, sociologist, teacher, and public speaker who has spent much of his life trying to understand the human condition, especially as shaped by issues of gender, race, and social class. His nonfiction books have been translated into several languages, and his first novel, The First Thing and the Last, was recognized in 2010 by Publishers Weekly as a notable debut work of fiction and named a “Great Read” by O Magazine. His memoir, Not from Here, was published in 2015.

He was born in Washington, DC, in 1946 and at the age of six went with his family to live for two years in Oslo, Norway, where his father worked in the U.S. embassy. Returning from Norway, his family settled in Massachusetts where he Allan G. Johnson is a novelist, nonfiction writer, sociologist, teacher, and public speaker who has spent much of his life trying to understand the human condition, especially as shaped by issues of gender, race, and social class. His nonfiction books have been translated into several languages, and his first novel, The First Thing and the Last, was recognized in 2010 by Publishers Weekly as a notable debut work of fiction and named a “Great Read” by O Magazine. His memoir, Not from Here, was published in 2015.

He was born in Washington, DC, in 1946 and at the age of six went with his family to live for two years in Oslo, Norway, where his father worked in the U.S. embassy. Returning from Norway, his family settled in Massachusetts where he did the rest of his growing up. He wrote his first (very) short story when he was ten years old. He wrote poetry and short fiction all through high school, winning awards for both in his senior year, and continued writing on into college.

He earned a PhD in Sociology at the University of Michigan in 1968 and taught for eight years at Wesleyan University. During this time—when the radical feminist women's movement was at its height—he became involved in the rape crisis movement and began his exploration of patriarchy and systems of privilege.

Striking out on his own after not receiving tenure, he spent a year writing short stories before the necessity to earn a living took him back to nonfiction writing and part-time college teaching.

By the late 1990s he was writing and speaking widely about issues of privilege and oppression, and he had finally returned to his roots as a fiction writer with the start of his first novel, The First Thing and the Last, a story of healing and redemption in the aftermath of domestic violence. His second novel, Nothing Left to Lose, the story of a family in crisis during the Vietnam War, was published in 2011.

He lives with his life partner, Nora L. Jamieson, in the hills of northwestern Connecticut. ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Allan G. Johnson questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Allan G. Johnson’s books

Average rating: 4.1 · 2,577 ratings · 290 reviews · 19 distinct works • Similar authors

	Privilege, Power, and Difference 4.04 avg rating — 1,489 ratings — published 2001 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy 4.25 avg rating — 647 ratings — published 1997 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Forest and the Trees 4.10 avg rating — 260 ratings — published 1991 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The First Thing and the Last 4.40 avg rating — 89 ratings — published 2010 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nothing Left to Lose 4.20 avg rating — 35 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Not from Here: A Memoir 3.56 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User's Guide to Sociological Language 3.59 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1995 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	GEN COMBO PRIVILEGE POWER AND DIFFERENCE; CONNECT ACCESS CARD really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Human arrangements: An introduction to sociology it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1986 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Statistics liked it 3.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Allan G. Johnson…

Allan is Currently Reading

Allan Johnson rated a book really liked it

The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive

by Martin Prechtel

bookshelves: currently-reading, social-issues

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 16, 2012 07:24AM

Quotes by Allan G. Johnson (?)

“It is easier to allow a few women to occupy positions of authority and dominance than to question whether social life should be organized around principles of hierarchy, control, and dominance at all, to allow a few women to reach the heights of the corporate hierarchy rather than question whether people's needs should depend on an economic system based on dominance, control, and competition. It is easier to allow women to practice law than to question adversarial conflict as a model for resolving disputes and achieving justice. It has even been easier to admit women to military combat roles than to question the acceptability of warfare and its attendant images of patriarchal masculine power and heroism as instruments of national policy. And it has been easier to elevate and applaud a few women than to confront the cultural misogyny that is never far off, waiting in the wings and available for anyone who wants to use it to bring women down and put them in their place.”
― Allan G. Johnson, The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Pariarchal Legacy

12 likes

“People are tagged with other labels that point to the lowest-status group they belong to, as in "woman doctor" or "black writer," but never "white lawyer" or male senator". Any category that lowers our status relative to others' can be used to mark us; to be privileged is to go through life with the relative ease of being unmarked.”
― Allan G. Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference

8 likes

“The public response to feminism has been ferociously defensive precisely because feminism touches such a deep nerve of truth and the denial that keeps us from it. If feminism were truly ridiculous, it would be ignored. But it isn't ridiculous, and so provokes a vigorous backlash.”
― Allan G. Johnson, The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Pariarchal Legacy

7 likes

See all Allan G. Johnson's quotes »