- 320 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Political Thought of America’s Founding Feminists
About this book
Recovering the powerful and influential contributions of women from the nation's formative years
The Political Thought of America's Founding Feminists traces the significance of Frances Wright, Harriet Martineau, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth in shaping American political thinking. These women understood the relationship between sexism, racism, and economic inequality; yet, they are virtually unknown in American political thought because they are considered activists, not theorists. Their efforts to expand the reach of America's founding ideals laid the groundwork not only for women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery, but for the broader expansion of civil, political, and human rights that would characterize much of the twentieth century and continues to unfold today.
Drawing on a careful reading of speeches, letters and other archival sources, Lisa Pace Vetter shows the ways in which the early women's rights movement and abolitionism were central to the development of American political thought. The Political Thought of America's Founding Feminists demonstrates that early American political thought is incomplete without attention to these important female thinkers, and that an understanding of early American women's movements is incomplete without considering its profound impact on political thought.
A complex and thoughtful guide to the indispensable role of women in shaping the American way of life, The Political Thought of America's Founding Feminists is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the history of American political thought.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Political Theory and the Founding of American Feminism
- 1. Lifting the “Claud-Lorraine Tint” over the Republic: Frances Wright’s Critique of Society and Manners in America
- 2. Harriet Martineau on the Theory and Practice of Democracy in America
- 3. Facing the “Sledge Hammer of Truth”: Angelina Grimké and the Rhetoric of Reform
- 4. Sarah Grimké’s Quaker Liberalism
- 5. “The Most Belligerent Non-Resistant”: Lucretia Mott on Women’s Rights
- 6. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Rhetoric of Ridicule and Reform
- 7. The Shadow and the Substance of Sojourner Truth
- Conclusion: America’s Founding Feminists
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author