Showing papers on "Emancipation published in 1989"
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the debate on widow burning in colonial India and argues that the women who were burned were marginal to the debate and that the controversy was over definitions of Hindu tradition, the place of ritual in religious worship, the civilizing missions of colonialism and evangelism, and the proper role of the colonial state.
Abstract: "Contentious Traditions" analyzes the debate on sati, or widow burning, in colonial India. Though the prohibition of widow burning in 1829 was heralded as a key step forward for women's emancipation in modern India, Lata Mani argues that the women who were burned were marginal to the debate and that the controversy was over definitions of Hindu tradition, the place of ritual in religious worship, the civilizing missions of colonialism and evangelism, and the proper role of the colonial state. Mani radically revises colonialist as well as nationalist historiography on the social reform of women's status in the colonial period and clarifies the complex and contradictory character of missionary writings on India. The history of widow burning is one of paradox. While the chief players in the debate argued over the religious basis of sati and the fine points of scriptural interpretation, the testimonials of women at the funeral pyres consistently addressed, the material hardships and societal expectations attached to widowhood. And although historiography has traditionally emphasized the colonial horror of sati, a fascinated ambivalence toward the practice suffused official discussions. The debate normalized the violence of sati and supported the misconception that it was a voluntary act of wifely devotion. Mani brilliantly illustrates how situated feminism and discourse analysis compel a rewriting of history, thus destabilizing the ways we are accustomed to look at women and men, at 'tradition', custom, and modernity.
470 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In the late 18th century, women's rights and women's duties in the 19th and 20th centuries were discussed in the New Republic and The New Republic: 1945-1988 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Contents: Human Rights and Women's Duties in the late 18th Century: Bourgeois Society and Gender -- The 19th Century -- The Discovery of the 'Modern Women' 1914-1933 -- Between Tradition and Modernity: Women in the Third Reich -- Opportunities and Restrictions in the New Republic: 1945-1988 -- Two Hundred Years of Women's History: A Critical Appraisal
148 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The modern educational crisis from interest to practice emancipation and education traditional schooling and responsible critique traditional teaching and learning contexts for research and action the organization of educational enlightenment concluding remarks as discussed by the authors. But this is not the case for all educational organizations.
Abstract: The modern educational crisis from interest to practice emancipation and education traditional schooling and responsible critique traditional teaching and learning contexts for research and action the organization of educational enlightenment concluding remarks.
144 citations
Book•
28 Sep 1989
TL;DR: Ladies Elect as mentioned in this paper explores the world of those who held elected office on behalf of other women and children, the old, and the sick in mind and body, and places it in the context of the general movement towards women's emancipation.
Abstract: Fifty years before the suffragettes fought to have the parliamentary vote, women in England were able to elect and be elected to local district councils, school boards, and poor law boards. This study explores the world of those who held elected office on behalf of other women and children, the old, and the sick in mind and body. They faced widespread hostility, but such was their success that in many cities and counties they were a stronger presence in 1900 than in 1975. Local government offered that conjunction of "compulsory philanthropy", "municipal housekeeping", and local responsibility which made it a sphere suitable for women. Based on the records of some twenty town and ten rural districts, "Ladies Elect" describes and assesses their work in local government before 1914, and places it in the context of the general movement towards women's emancipation. This study will be of interest to students of nineteenth and early twentieth century British social, political, and educational history, of women's history, and the history of local government; local historians and sociologists.
95 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1989TL;DR: In this article, Blight investigated the impact of the Civil War on Douglass' life and thought, and provided new insights into the meaning of the war in American history and in the Afro-American experience.
Abstract: In this sensitive intellectual biography David W. Blight undertakes the first systematic analysis of the impact of the Civil War on Frederick Douglass' life and thought, offering new insights into the meaning of the war in American history and in the Afro-American experience. Frederick Douglass' Civil War follows Douglass' intellectual and personal growth from the political crises of the 1850s through secession, war, black enlistment, emancipation, and Reconstruction. This book provides an engrossing story of Douglass' development of a social identity in relation to transforming events, and demonstrates that he saw the Civil War as the Second American Revolution, and himself as one of the founders of a new nation. Through Douglass' life, his voice, and his interpretations we see the Civil War era and its memory in a new light.
82 citations
TL;DR: The colonial question has received remarkably little attention from scholars of the French Revolution as discussed by the authors, and it is difficult to understand that effort without reference to developments in the colonies, as well as to the contemporary debate about the limits of metropolitan control and the threat of white secessionism within the empire.
Abstract: THE COLONIAL QUESTION IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION involved three broad issues: self-government for France's overseas possessions, civil rights for their free colored populations, and the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself. This article is primarily concerned with the pursuit in France of racial equality and slave emancipation, but it is difficult to understand that effort without reference to developments in the colonies, as well as to the contemporary debate about the limits of metropolitan control and the threat of white secessionism within the empire. ' Indeed, one of the chief interests of the colonial question lies in the interaction of its three component issues and the complex counterpoint that developed between events in Europe and the Caribbean. Until recently, the colonial question has received remarkably little attention from scholars of the French Revolution. As Mitchell Garrett observed in 1916, historians have been less interested in French attitudes toward the colonies during the revolutionary period than in the colonies themselves.2 The abolition of slavery in 1794, surely one of the most radical acts of the entire revolution, gets no mention in the classic studies of Jules Michelet, Jean Jaures, Albert Mathiez, and Albert Soboul, nor in the recent histories of George Rude, D. M. G. Sutherland, and Simon Schama.3 Matters of empire, race, and slavery fail to appear in the documentary collections of J. M. Roberts and John Hardman, or in such different works as those of Peter Kropotkin, Pierre Gaxotte, and (barring a misleading half-sentence) Alexis de Tocqueville.4 Even
61 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the importance of ideology and the need for it in science and argue that science as a Legitimator of Ideological Interests can be seen as an alternative to the Military/Industrial Complex.
Abstract: PART 1: THE NECESSITY OF IDEOLOGY 1. Introductory 2. The Socio-economic Parameters 3. Politics and Ideology Part 2: SCIENCE, IDEOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY 4. Science as Legitimator of Ideological Interests 5. Science under the Shadow of the Military/Industrial Complex 6. Methodology and Ideology Part 3: IDEOLOGY AND EMANCIPATION 7. Social Revolution and the Division of Labour 8. The Constitution of Solidarity 9. Ideology and Autonomy Notes Bibliography Index
58 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The story of the Jews in post-revolutionary France is described in this paper, which reveals the complexities inherent in the process of Jewish emancipation and modernisation and focuses on the efforts of French Jewish leaders to come to terms with the social and religious implications of modernity.
Abstract: This is the story of the Jews in post-revolutionary France. It reveals the complexities inherent in the process of Jewish emancipation and modernisation and focuses on the efforts of French Jewish leaders to come to terms with the social and religious implications of modernity.
58 citations
TL;DR: In the first week of January 1883, a distinguished group of black leaders held a banquet in Washington, D.C., to honor the nineteenth century's most prominent Afro-American intellectual, Frederick Douglass as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the first week ofJanuary 1883, on the twentieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a distinguished group of black leaders held a banquet in Washington, D.C., to honor the nineteenth century's most prominent Afro-American intellectual, Frederick Douglass. The banquet was an act of veneration for Douglass, an acknowledgment of the aging abolitionist's indispensable role in the Civil War era, a ritual of collective celebration, and an opportunity to forge historical memory and transmit it across generations. The nearly fifty guests comprised a who's who of black leadership in the middle and late nineteenth century. For the moment, rivalries and ideological disputes were suppressed. Sen. Blanche K. Bruce chaired the event. Robert Smalls, Edward Blyden, the Reverend Benjamin T. Tanner,
58 citations
Book•
29 Sep 1989
TL;DR: The authors argues that the system of capitalist slavery in the South not only caused the Civil War by producing tensions that could not be resolved by compromise, but also played a crucial role in the outcome of that War by crippling the southern war effort at the same time that emancipation became a unifying issue for the North.
Abstract: No series of events has had a more dramatic impact on the course of American history than the Civil War and the emancipation of four million black slaves. In this book Professor Roger Ransom examines the economic and political factors that led to the attempt by Southerners to dissolve the Union in 1860, and the equally determined effort of Northerners to preserve it. Drawing on recent research in economic, political, and social history, Ransom argues that the system of capitalist slavery in the South not only 'caused' the Civil War by producing tensions that could not be resolved by compromise; it also played a crucial role in the outcome of that War by crippling the southern war effort at the same time that emancipation became a unifying issue for the North.
56 citations
Book•
24 Mar 1989
TL;DR: Part I: Theoretical Overtures Leviathan or Mammon? The Scope of Imperialism Theories Limits of World System Theory Enlightenment and Emancipation Part II: Historical Inquiries Crusades and Empire Divide-and-Rule Made in Britain Politics of Neocolonialism in Latin America Class Struggles in the Western World Empire and Class Struggle Empire and Power Empire and Race Continuities of Empire Red Roads Slavery and emancipation as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Part I: Theoretical Overtures Leviathan or Mammon? The Scope of Imperialism Theories Limits of World System Theory Enlightenment and Emancipation Part II: Historical Inquiries Crusades and Empire Divide-and-Rule Made in Britain Politics of Neocolonialism in Latin America Class Struggles in the Western World Empire and Class Struggle Empire and Power Empire and Race Continuities of Empire Red Roads Slavery and Emancipation Epilogue: Dialectics of Empire and Emancipation Bibliography Indexes
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine whether females have remained traditional in their delinquency patterns, whether the observed changes (if they exist at all) are real or the result of changing societal reactions, and whether female delinquents have been "masculinized" or in other ways influenced by women's liberation movement or changing gender roles.
Abstract: By the mid-1970s studies began to indicate that the era of women's emancipation had been accompanied by changes in the volume and character of female lawbreaking. In this paper, I critically review the growing literature that has attempted to measure and explain the alleged changes in female delinquency. I examine whether females have remained traditional in their delinquency patterns, whether the observed changes (if they exist at all) are real or the result of changing societal reactions, and whether female delinquents have been “masculinized” or in other ways influenced by the women's liberation movement or changing gender roles. I also review explanations of female delinquency that are derived from social control, power-control, strain, and subcultural theories. Finally, I argue that more attention needs to be given to understanding the “role strain” inherent in females' attempts to negotiate ambiguous or contradictory gender roles, and that the concept of role strain offers a promising explanation of contemporary patterns of female delinquency.
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: This paper collected children's books from the accession diaries of Peter Opie, Clive Hurst children in early modern England, Keith Thomas a child prophet - Martha Hatfield as "The Wise Virgin", Nigel Smith the Puritans and their heirs, Gillian Avery the origins of the early fairy tale for children or how script was used to tame the beast in us, Jack Zipes "Malbrouk s'en va-t-en guerre" or how history reaches the nursery, Giles Barber William Godwin as children's bookseller, William St Clair Dod
Abstract: Collecting children's books - self-indulgence and scholarship, Brian Alderson selections from the accession diaries of Peter Opie, Clive Hurst children in early modern England, Keith Thomas a child prophet - Martha Hatfield as "The Wise Virgin", Nigel Smith the Puritans and their heirs, Gillian Avery the origins of the early fairy tale for children or how script was used to tame the beast in us, Jack Zipes "Malbrouk s'en va-t-en guerre" or how history reaches the nursery, Giles Barber William Godwin as children's bookseller, William St Clair Dodgson, Carroll and the emancipation of Alice, John Batchelor Arthur Hughes as illustrator for children, Kate Flint women writers and writing for children - from Sarah Fielding to E.Nesbit, Julia Briggs E.Nesbit and "The Book of Dragons", Wallace Robson excessively impertinent bunnies - the subversive element in Beatrix Potter, Humphrey Carpenter "The Wind in the Willows" - the vitality of a classic, Neil Philip Henry James' children, Barbara Everett the child in Walter de la Mare, John Bayley Tolkien's great war, Hugh Brogan William Mayne, Alison Lurie children's diaries, A.O.J.Cockshut children's manuscript magazines in the Bodleian Library, Olivia and Alan Bell.
TL;DR: These essays show none of the animosity against doctors that some detected in his Reith Lectures; Kennedy's position is that all such difficulties cannot be doctors' dilemmas alone, for they necessarily involve other people and broader principles, and-like it or not-raise questions of law and legislation.
Abstract: must doctors inform patients of risks in treatment, or of alternative treatments? He rejects the commonly-expressed medical contention that these are essentially matters of technical and professional judgment best left to doctors to decide. Yet these essays show none of the animosity against doctors that some detected in his Reith Lectures; Kennedy's position, rather, is that all such difficulties cannot be doctors' dilemmas alone, for they necessarily involve other people and broader principles, and-like it or not-raise questions of law and legislation. Indeed, if Kennedy displays animosity, it is directed not against doctors but against the evasions of parliamentarians (for failing to legislate adequately on matters such as transplants), the muddle-headedness ofphilosophers (he tears the Warnock Report to shreds), and the asininities of judges (all too often, as he shows, they are out of touch not merely with the modern world but even with the letter of the law itself). Throughout his essays there runs a common thread. Almost every difficult ethico-legal issue in medicine involves a clash of interests between two parties; on the one hand, the person being treated, and, on the other, a physician, a spouse, a parent, a local authority. Parents may want a Down's syndrome baby to die; a physician may want, or will feel morally or legally obliged, to use heroic measures to keep a dying person alive against that person's express wishes. In all such cases, Kennedy argues, humanely and persuasively, one principle should guide our actions: the autonomy of the person undergoing treatment must come first. The interests and needs of patients must take priority, and the best indicator of these should standardly be their expressed wishes, past, present, and future. Thus take the 15-year-old girl, the doctor, and the Pill. In the Gillick case, the Appeal Court judgement apparently found that the rights of parents must take priority over the expressed wants of a person of an age thought by society to be mature and responsible enough to be making decisions in most other areas of life. Kennedy thinks the ruling bad ethics and inconsistent law. He is not arguing, ofcourse, that doctors have a duty to shower teenage girls with contraceptives. He is claiming, however, that parental paternalism is not automatically a trump card in resolving difficult cases. Likewise with medical paternalism. Perhaps the most eloquent discussions in the whole book protest against the hostility of sections of the British …
Book•
01 Sep 1989
TL;DR: The conceptual framework of the historical setting from emancipation to autonomy is discussed in this paper. But the evolution of the Bund's national programme is not considered. And the authors do not discuss the role of sociology in the evolution from primordiality to politics.
Abstract: The conceptual framework the historical setting from emancipation to autonomy - the evolution of the Bund's national programme - emancipation as self-determination 1893-1901, self-determination as autonomy 1901-1903 from primordiality to politics - the Bund and its interpreters - the Bund - evolutionary primordialism, the socialist Zionists - reactive primordialism, Lenin - Marxist diffusionism, Frankel - the primacy of politics from split labour market to ethno-class consciousness - bringing sociology back in.
TL;DR: The social construction of Victorian femininity: emancipation, education and exercise as mentioned in this paper is a classic example of such a social construction, and it has been studied extensively in the history of sport.
Abstract: (1989). The social construction of Victorian femininity: emancipation, education and exercise. The International Journal of the History of Sport: Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1-9.
TL;DR: In this article, sport, dress reform and the emancipation of women in Victorian England: a re-evaluation is presented in the International Journal of the History of Sport: Vol 6, No. 1, pp. 10-30.
Abstract: (1989). Sport, dress reform and the emancipation of women in Victorian England: a reappraisal. The International Journal of the History of Sport: Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 10-30.
TL;DR: The concept of womanism can be traced back to Sojourner's speech that began to develop and highlight Africana women's unique experience into a paradigm for women.
Abstract: During her lifetime as a staunch upholder of truth and justice, Sojourner Truth, born a slave in 1797 and freed under the 1827 New York State Emancipation Act, often unexpectedly appeared at antislavery and women’s rights rallies. The concept of Womanism can be traced back to Sojourner’s speech that began to develop and highlight Africana women’s unique experience into a paradigm for Africana women. The daily evacuation of males and females from the Africana community in a nine-to-five society has wreaked havoc on the sense of security of Africana children. Sojourner Truth demonstrated early on in the Women’s Rights movement that a commonality exists between the Africana men and women of the South and the women of the North in their struggle for freedom. Ironically, Sojourner was not embracing the Women’s Rights movement; instead she was attacking that element of the Women’s Rights agenda that excluded her.
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: This article examined the remarkable economic ascent of Louisiana's free people of color, the problems they confronted before and during the war, and their precipitous decline during the postwar era, focusing on property ownership, a key variable to understanding relative economic condition, and comparing the wealth holdings of free blacks and former free blacks with whites.
Abstract: During the first fifteen years after the Civil War the landholdings of former free persons of color in Louisiana virtually disappeared. While historians have long shown an interest in the economic activities of Louisiana's free people of color during the prewar era, they have been less concerned with the fate of this group during the postwar period. Nor have they compared this decline to the changes in black wealth-holding patterns in other Southern states. This is perhaps understandable, since tracing a small group of fewer than 4,000 families following the emancipation of more than 330,000 slaves presents unique problems. Yet in some ways an analysis of the difficulties they confronted after the Civil War shows more clearly their unique and privileged prewar status than does an examination of the antebellum period. This essay seeks to examine the remarkable economic ascent of Louisiana's free people of color, the problems they confronted before and during the war, and their precipitous decline during the postwar era. It does so by focusing on property ownership, a key variable to understanding relative economic condition, and by comparing the wealth holdings of free blacks and former free blacks with whites. It also attempts to unravel the complex social and cultural changes which occurred as a result of emancipation and connect them with the economic changes which took place.
TL;DR: The bravery of Peter Salem and Salem Poor at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775 became the stuff of legend as mentioned in this paper and other blacks like them-men such as Alexander Ames, Caesar Brown, Titus Colburn, Grant Cooper, Caesar Dickerson, Prince Hall, Cuff Hayes, Barzillai Lew, Sampson Talbert, and Cato Tufts-helped sustain the patriot cause in Massachusetts.
Abstract: APPROXIMATELY 16,000 strong in New England on the eve of the American Revolution, blacks made celebrated efforts for the patriot cause at arms. The bravery of Peter Salem and Salem Poor at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775 became the stuff of legend. Other blacks like them-men such as Alexander Ames, Caesar Brown, Titus Colburn, Grant Cooper, Caesar Dickerson, Prince Hall, Cuff Hayes, Barzillai Lew, Sampson Talbert, and Cato Tufts-helped sustain the patriot cause in Massachusetts, which in 1776 held 5,249 blacks clustered mostly in the contiguous counties of Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk, where Boston sat.'
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors compared the perspectives of women in official positions with urban working class and college-educated women and found that class differences affect their responses to the current concepts of and opportunities for women.
Abstract: China's leaders since 1949 have generally held that women's emancipation is an automatic result of socialist economic development and that a separate focus on gender issues is therefore unnecessary. This has left certain structural and conceptual problems of gender inequality unaddressed. Old and new concepts defining and giving value to women and women's activities result in limiting the development of a feminist consciousness among urban women, and limit opportunities and choices for these women in education, jobs, and leadership. Comparison of the perspectives of women in official positions with urban working class and college-educated women shows that class differences affect their responses to the current concepts of and opportunities for women. These differences are also reflected in their assessment of the degree to which women have achieved emancipation in China, and their interest in further work toward creating gender equality.
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The question of the proper methodological foundations for the social, political, and historical studies is now seemingly in a greater state of intellectual contention than at any time this century as mentioned in this paper, perhaps this is a consequence of the incipient breakdown of neo-Enlightenment modes of thought with their at least partial coherence around the projects of rational inquiry and promotion of progressive social justice.
Abstract: The question of the proper methodological foundations for the social, political, and historical studies is now seemingly in a greater state of intellectual contention than at any time this century. Perhaps this is a consequence of the incipient breakdown of neo-Enlightenment modes of thought with their at least partial coherence around the projects of rational inquiry and promotion of progressive social justice. The propagation of new and ever more sophisticated versions of relativism now poses a serious threat to the whole possibility of intersubjective understanding and explanation, not just of society but of nature too. I fear that with that possibility goes the possibility of rational, democratic, emancipatory transformation of the world. Social critique and rational emancipation would seem inevitably to depend on some universalistic concepts, as well as on a commitment to the principles of equality and democracy.
TL;DR: Prymak as discussed by the authors provides a compelling account of Kostomarov's original and controversial scholarship, and his role in the cultural politics of his day, bringing to light a legacy long buried by the censoring mechanisms of both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Empire.
Abstract: Historian, educator, and author Mykola Kostomarov was a leading figure in the Ukrainian national awakening of the nineteenth century, and played an important role in the cultural life of Russia as well. As an ethnographer, he sought to uncover the mysterious soul? of the Ukrainian people, and his poetry contributed to the development of a Ukrainian literary language. An outspoken proponent of social and national emancipation, he was imprisoned and exiled for his role in the Cyril-Methodian Brotherhood, which worked towards a Ukrainian national renaissance and a pan-Slavic federalism. In Russia, he led the populist? school, which shifted the focus of history away from the realm of tsars and princes, and argued the centrality of the people? to their own story.This first English-language biography of Kostomarov - and first large-scale study of the subject in any language - offers a compelling account of his original and controversial scholarship, and his role in the cultural politics of his day. Prymak brings to light a legacy long buried by the censoring mechanisms of both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Empire. Claimed by both Ukraine and Russia as a major historian, Kostomarov's biography provides insight into the complex question of inter-ethnic and international relations in Eastern Europe and in the former Russian and Soviet empires.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Feminist historians have pointed to the latter decades of the nineteenth century as a time when tensions between the sexes became particularly acute, and a number of feminists expressed a growing desire to control their own bodies and reproductive lives by pursuing health and wholeness.
Abstract: Feminist historians have pointed to the latter decades of the nineteenth century as a time when tensions between the sexes became particularly acute. A growing number of women struggled to further their intellectual capacity and extend the parameters of their physical capabilities within a patriarchal tradition of female confinement and subordination. Though they encountered controlling ideologies and rigid role prescriptions which had the effect of subduing their initiatives, a number of feminists expressed a growing desire to control their own bodies and reproductive lives by pursuing health and wholeness. They demanded release from the rigid behavioral expectations which large numbers of males and doctors determined as their birthright and sought to escape from the social script that women had both internalized and performed in response to social expectations. Demanding new roles and opportunities, these feminists aspired to become not simply equal to men but “new women.” A prominent (though by no means typical) example of the “new woman” was Charlotte Perkins Gilman. An exceptional woman of considerable talent,
TL;DR: It is easier for a Marxist to find reasons to criticize Savigny than to praise him as mentioned in this paper, and it is easier, especially for a Marxist, to find a reason to criticize a legal theorist rather than praise him, which may explain the fact that Nazi lawyers drew on his concept of "national spirit" as an idea of "inexhaustible fertility".
Abstract: It is easier, especially for a Marxist, to find reasons to criticize Savigny than to praise him. Certainly Savigny was a legal theorist of truly international caliber. His early work, "The Right of Property," has been translated into Italian, French, and English; his History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages into Italian, French, and English; his System of Contemporary Roman Law into French, English, and Spanish; and his world-famous treatise, On the Vocation of Our Time for Legislation and Jurisprudence, has been available for more than 150 years in English. What use has been made of Savigny's works? Is he to be blamed for the fact that Nazi lawyers drew on his concept of "national spirit" (Volksgeist) as an idea of "inexhaustible fertility"?2 Can we blame Savigny for proponents of racist practice in South Africa, particularly at the Afrikaans-language universities, who refer to Savigny's "spirit of the Volk"?3 Perhaps one need not even advance beyond the last century to raise and cultivate aversions against the "cloying troubadour of the pandects" (Heinrich Heine). Does not his strident opposition to the Enlightenment, revolution, democracy, republicanism, communism, and the emancipation of peasants and Jews4 provide sufficient evi-
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The Emancipation Proclamation became law January 1, 1863, and some abolitionist women rejoiced, but most were skeptical ofthe measure as mentioned in this paper, and Amy Post, a Rochester activist, summarized the views of many when she wrote that the proclamation was "more than I feared but much less than I hoped."
Abstract: In the summer of 1862, Ellen Wright penned a letter to her close friend Lucy McKim. Both of these young women were the daughters of well- known abolitionists and both would later marry sons of William Lloyd Garrison. Writing from her home in upstate New York, Ellen Wright ex- pressed her disappointment at being unable to play an active role in what she regarded as the war to liberate the slaves. "Think how our boys are all going!" she wrote. "Is it not stifling, irksome work, to remain quietly at home."1 Her letter demonstrated the exuberance and impatience ofyouth, but she also touched upon something more far-reaching. Manywomen felt a sense offrustration during the war. Fully aware ofthe importance ofthe conflict about antislavery and the future ofdemocratic government, many longed to take a more active role in the war than the traditional female tasks of nursing, sewing, and bandage rolling. When the Emancipation Proclamation became law January 1, 1863, some abolitionist women rejoiced, but most were skeptical ofthe measure. Amy Post, a Rochester activist, summarized the views of many when she wrote that the proclamation was "more than I feared but much less than I hoped."Abolitionists also complained about the president's motives. "The ugly fact cannot be concealed from history," wrote the novelist and pam-
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: O'Neill's history of American women's struggle for equality is written with style and a keen sense for the variety of possible interpretations of 150 years of the feminist movement, from its earliest stirring in the 1830's to the latest developments in the 1980s.
Abstract: William L. O'Neill's lively history of American women's struggle for equality is written with style and a keen sense for the variety of possible interpretations of 150 years of the feminist movement, from its earliest stirring in the 1830's to the latest developments in the 1980s. O'Neill's most controversial thesis is that the feminist movements of the past have largely failed, and for reasons that remains of deep concern; the movements have never come to grips with the fact that marriage and the family are the chief obstacles to women's emancipation. O'Neill also holds that the sexual revolution of the 1920s, far from liberating women, actually undermined their role in American life. O'Neill treats seriously the ideas of the great feminist leaders and their organizations. His was the first book to deal directly with the failure of feminism as a social force in American society; to tie together the scattered people and events in the history of American women; and to examine seriously feminist experience in the twentieth century. Since the women's agenda is hardly complete, the women's movement remains active, often militantly so. In this new revised edition, O'Neill interprets and illumines not only the history of feminism, but aspects of feminism that still trouble us today. O'Neill's book was widely heralded upon its initial publication. Elizabeth Janeway, writing for Saturday Review, calls it "a truly intelligent discussion...an extraordinary perceptive analysis." Carl Degler, in the Magazine of History calls A History of American Feminism "the most challenging and exciting book on the subject of women to appear in years." And Lionel Tiger, writing for the NewRepublic, says that "O'Neill has turned his mastery of a wide range of historical sources into a lively, engaging, and almost faultlessly sensible book."