A civil society : the public space of freemason women in France, 1744-1944 / James Smith Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, James Smith, author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women and freemasonry--France--History.

Women and freemasonry.

Freemasonry--France--History.

Freemasonry.

Civil society--France--History.

Civil society.

France.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 346 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2022]

Summary:

"James Smith Allen explores the two-hundred-year struggle to initiate women as full participants in the masonic brotherhood that shared in the rise of France's civil society and its "civic morality" on behalf of women's rights"-- Provided by publisher.

"A Civil Society explores the struggle to initiate women as full participants in the masonic brotherhood that shared in the rise of France's civil society and its "civic morality" on behalf of women's rights. As a vital component of the third sector during France's modernization, freemasonry empowered women in complex social networks, contributing to a more liberal republic, a more open society, and a more engaged public culture. James Smith Allen shows that although women initially met with stiff resistance, their induction into the brotherhood was a significant step in the development of French civil society and its "civic morality," including the promotion of women's rights in the late nineteenth century. Pulling together the many gendered facets of masonry, Allen draws from periodicals, memoirs, and archival material to account for the rise of women within the masonic brotherhood in the context of rapid historical change. Thanks to women's social networks and their attendant social capital, masonry came to play a leading role in French civil society and the rethinking of gender relations in the public sphere"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Masonry's Gendered Variations Before And After 1789

ch. 2 The Craft's Long March To Mixed Orders, 1799-1901

ch. 3 Women's Masonry And The Women's Movement From The Fin De Siecle To 1944

ch. 4 Contesting Imaginaries Of Freemason Women

Conclusion Civic Morality In Modern France

Appendixes

1. Glossary of Masonic Terms

2. Mixed and Adoption Lodges in France (c. 1745-1790): Table

3. Madame Helvetius's Masonic Network (1771-1800)

4. Genealogy of the Saint-Simonian Family: Figure

5. George Sand's Masonic Network (1840-1850)

6. Le Droit Humain in the World (2018)

7. Louise Michel's Masonic Network (1850-1904)

8. Freemason Women and Their First Lodges in France (1744-1944).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9781496227782

1496227786

OCLC:

1266195676