Erased : a history of international thought without men / Patricia Owens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Owens, Patricia, 1975- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International relations--Study and teaching--Great Britain--History--20th century.

International relations.

Women international relations specialists--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Women international relations specialists.

Women--Political activity.

Women.

international relations.

Physical Description:

xvi, 409 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"The academic field of international relations presents its own history as largely a project of elite white men. And yet women played a prominent role in the creation of this new cross-disciplinary field. In Erased, Patricia Owens shows that, since its beginnings in the early twentieth century, international relations relied on the intellectual labour of women and their expertise on such subjects as empire and colonial administration, anticolonial organising, non-Western powers, and international organisations. Indeed, women were among the leading international thinkers of the era, shaping the development of the field as scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals--and as heterosexual spouses and intimate same-sex partners. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, and weaving together personal, institutional, and intellectual narratives, Owens documents key moments and locations in the effort to forge international relations as a separate academic discipline in Britain. She finds that women's ideas and influence were first marginalised and later devalued, ignored, and erased. Examining the roles played by some of the most important women thinkers in the field, including Margery Perham, Merze Tate, Eileen Power, Margaret Cleeve, Coral Bell, and Susan Strange, Owens traces the intellectual and institutional legacies of misogyny and racism. She argues that the creation of international relations was a highly gendered and racialised project that failed to understand plurality on a worldwide scale. Acknowledging this intellectual failure, and recovering the history of women in the field, points to possible sources for its renewal."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: The gender of international thought

Aberystwyth 1919 : a love story

This White, English, self-loved, cultivated self

The house that Margaret built : White women's housework in IR's backroom

No international relations without women

Power's world : international relations as world social and economic history

Oxford's failures : from diplomatic history to critical histories of international relations

The 'spinsters' and diplomat's daughters

'The restraint to efface ourselves' : assimilating decolonisation

Is British international thought White?

"This is no witch-hunt"

These women with large families" : on motherhood

Conclusion: The voice of Portia.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-390) and index.

ISBN:

0691266441

9780691266442

OCLC:

1429574430