The Book Read Backwards traces the history of patriarchy and its consequent representation and deconstruction in feminist literature. Questioning the presuppositions of feminist thought and analyzing the origins and validity of terminology utilized in such thinking, Barnes critiques modern thought within the framework of a gulf between the historical and the ideological. As the author states in the preface, "Feminism reveals the leavening of human thought acknowledged in words. Like all ideology it forms, progresses and grows." This text gives the reader considerable insight into that process.