Works by
Riane Eisler
(aka Riane Tennenhaus Eisler)
(Writer)

Dissolution: NoFault Divorce, Marriage, and the Future of Women (1977)
Dissolution is a new word for divorce. In Dissolution, Riane Eisler discusses the fundamental societal and litigious changes of divorce from an action that was until recently an unacceptable social phenomenon to what is now commonplace. The book compares the old divorce laws based on marital fault with new "no-fault" divorce laws, an analysis of the laws and institutions of marriage and divorce, and alternatives (social and litigious) to marriage and divorce.

The Equal Rights Handbook: What ERA Means For Your Life, Your Rights, and Your Future (1979)
Riane Eisler’s Handbook is a beautifully and concisely written book about one of the most important social movements of our times. She presents the case for the ERA as a matter of simple justice.

The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future (1987)
The Chalice and the Blade tells a new story of our cultural origins. It shows that war and the "war of the sexes" are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. And it provides verification that a better future is possible--and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting drama of what actually happened in our past.

The Partnership Way (1990) by David Loye and Riane Eisler
Exploring the ideas and information in The Chalice and the Blade, Eisler here teams up with another award-winning writer to apply her book's teachings in a guide to more satisfying, more meaningful options for ourselves and our planet.

Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body (1996)
Sacred Pleasure explores the past, present, and potential future of sex. It looks at both sex and the sacred in the larger context of our cultural and biological evolution. It demystifies much in our sexual history that has been confusing, indeed incomprehensible, shedding new light on matters still generally shoved under the rug of the religious dogma or scientific jargon.

The Gate: A Memoir of Love and Reflection (1999)
The Gate takes us from a narrow escape from the Holocaust in Nazi Europe, first to pre-Castro Cuba with its throbbing sexuality and decadence, and then the 1950s United States pre-civil rights movement. It tells the mesmerizing story of a clever child becoming her own woman. When Riane Eisler fled her native Vienna with her parents in 1939, the young Jewish refugee left behind an affluent and cosmopolitan life. A totally different world awaited her in Havana. As she grows older, she develops a secret life, becoming involved with a sexy and fiery Marxist revolutionary. As her family regains wealth and prestige, the daughter better understands her parents, their complicated relationship, and her own place in the world.

This lyrical, lovely work, reminiscent of Marguerite Duras' The Lover, is much more than a memoir. It is a work of art that will call each reader to examine the birth of consciousness and soul in themselves and that, for a brief moment, will remind each of us that technology and consumerism, as fine as they might be, are not the fundamental needs of the human soul.

The Gate works on many levels - from scintillating romance to the psychological profile of an influential social thinker. By reading The Gate, the many readers of The Chalice and the Blade and Sacred Pleasure will learn for the first time the very personal events in Riane Eisler's life that lead her to the courageous and portentous insights about human relationships and social history later documented in her exhaustive research on both pre- and contemporary civilizations.

Never before has a noted thinker revealed the inner psychological drama of her own awakening so directly related to the development of her groundbreaking creation of social theory, embodied in her work of the last twenty years in creating the partnership model. It will be clear to historians how the events in Ms. Eisler's life awakened her to social action and discomfort with prejudice, violence and inequality. The Gate shows the common thread of injustice and man's inhumanity to man -ranging from the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany, to the sexual and economic exploitation so rampant in Cuba, to the horrors of racism and justice in the United States itself. But above all, it is a book that will move every reader with its hope, faith, and love.

Tomorrow's Children: A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century (2000)
Tomorrow's Children recommends sweeping changes in both the content and process of teaching and maintains that ideas of struggle, conquest, and destruction can successfully be supplanted by those of cooperation, mutual aid, and respect for creation. The result is a revolutionary and inspiring picture of how education--and by extension, society--might look in the twenty-first century.

The Power of Partnership: Seven Relationships that will Change Your Life (2002)
This powerful book urges readers to examine their relationships - with themselves, their families, their work and communities, their spirituality, and the environment - to determine which of two models dictates their behavior, and then shows how they can improve. The dominator model is based on fear; the partnership model on respect. With practical suggestions for breaking free of the dominator model and moving into partnership, this book shows how respect in relationships can create a better life and a better world.

Educating for a Culture of Peace (2004) by Riane Eisler and Ron Miller
What could be more timely than a book that advocates we teach the skills and knowledge students need to both live peacefully in the world and promote peace through their actions? After all, children are exposed to violence dozens of times daily, whether in programming targeted to their age groups, evening news carrying the latest casualties of war and murder, or video games that trivialize cruelty.

That's why Riane Eisler and Ron Miller have joined with thirteen other proponents for peace education, including famed children's troubadour Raffi, to present a crucial collection of essays that will help you create instructional practices and lessons that model the tools students need to turn aside culturally conditioned predilections toward domination and violence and, instead, embrace ideals that enable them to transform their relationships through a belief in compassion, caring, respect, and diversity. This vitally important book includes not only a strong rationale for why teaching for peace is utterly necessary, but also specific chapters dealing with issues that teachers encounter every day, including:
 

• using peaceful instead of violent language

• emphasizing social justice

• developing students' vision of peace through their own sense of integrity

The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (2007)
In this powerful book, eminent social scientist, Riane Eisler shows that the great problems of our time - such as poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation - are due largely to flawed economic systems that set the wrong priorities and misallocate resources.