The political thought of America's founding feminists / Lisa Pace Vetter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vetter, Lisa Pace, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminists--United States.

Feminists.

United States.

Feminism--United States--History--19th century.

Feminism.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 289 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2017]

Summary:

Recovering the powerful and influential intellectual 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 early American political thinking. A century before the term "intersectionality" appeared, these feminists anticipated the inter-relation between sexism, racism, and economic inequality. Although familiar to historians and literature scholars, these women are virtually unknown in American political thought because they are considered activists, not theorists. Yet 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 also for the broader expansion of civil, political, and human rights that characterized much of the twentieth century and continues to unfold today. Drawing on a careful reading of speeches, letters, and other archival sources, Lisa Pace Vetler shows the ways in which the early women's right movement and abolitionism were central to the development of American political thought. A complex and thoughtful guide to the indispensable role of women in shaping the American way of life, this book demonstrates that an understanding of early American political thought is incomplete without attention to these important female thinkers, and that an understanding of the early American women's rights movement is incomplete without considering its profound impact of political thought. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: political theory and the founding of American feminism

Lifting the "Claud-Lorraine tint" over the Republic: Frances Wright's critique

Of society and manners in America

Harriet Martineau on the theory and practice of democracy in America

Facing the "sledge hammer of truth": Angelina Grimke and the rhetoric of reform

Sarah Grimke's Quaker liberalism

"The most belligerent non-resistant": Lucretia Mott on women's rights

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's rhetoric of ridicule and reform

The shadow and the substance of Sojourner Truth

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781479853342

1479853348

9781479893256

1479893250

OCLC:

961205904