A History of Their Own: Women in Europe From Prehistory to the PresentVolume II / Edition 1

by Bonnie S. Anderson, Judith P. Zinsser

Overview

This classic two-volume history is an exciting and revolutionary look at women's history from prehistoric times to the present. Its unique organization focuses on the developments, achievements, and changes in women's roles in society. Rather than examining women's history as an inevitable progression of events along a strict timeline, this text is organized within a loose chronology, with chapters focusing on women's place and function in society. This revised edition provides a new introduction, an updated epilogue on women's lives in Europe since 1988, and a completely revised bibliography that includes recent scholarship. A History of Their Own restores women to the historical record, brings their history into focus, and provides models of female action and heroism. Lively and engaging, this new edition takes readers on a fascinating journey through women's history and the changing roles they have played. In addition it is an ideal text for general courses in women's studies and women's history and more specialized courses focusing on women in European history.
Volume Two covers the fifteenth century to the present. Topics include the roles of female monarchs and women of the court; the application of the new tools of the Scientific Revolution to prove traditional views of women; the salons and parlors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and wealthy women's contributions to the arts and social services; the impact of city-living and the Industrial Revolution on women's roles and family life; and the emergence, evolution, and impact of the modern feminist movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195128390
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/16/1999
Series:	Practical Approach in Chemistry Series
Edition description:	REVISED
Pages:	634
Product dimensions:	8.54(w) x 5.47(h) x 1.62(d)

About the Author

Brooklyn College and the Graduate Faculty, CUNY

Miami University, Ohio

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionVI. Women of the Courts: Rulers, Patrons, and Attendants1. The World of Absolute Monarchs from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries2. The Life of the Courtier3. The Traditional Life in a Grand Setting: Wife and Queen Consort4. Women Rulers5. New Opportunities6. The Legacies of Renaissance Humanism and the Scientific RevolutionVII. Women of the Salons and Parlors: Ladies, Housewives, and Professionals1. Women in the Salons2. Women in the Parlors3. Leaving the Parlors4. Opportunities and Limits: Change and Tradition in the Twentieth CenturyVIII: Women of the Cities: Mothers, Workers, and Revolutionaries1. Family Life2. Earning Income3. Revolutions and Reforms4. Community and Change: Women in World War II and AfterIX. Traditions Rejected: A History of Feminism in Europe1. Feminism in Europe2. Asserting Women's Humanity: Early European Feminists3. Asserting Women's Legal and Political Equality: Equal Rights Movements in Europe4. Feminist Socialism in Europe5. The Women's Liberation MovementEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

A groung-breaking two-volume work that makes the familiar landmarks and heroes of 'Western Civ 101' mere footnotes to a new version of history—one told from a woman's eye view.

Ms. Magazine

These are fascinating glimpses here of hundreds of women at home, at work, in the community, making their way into the commercial world, especially in textiles and clothing-related crafts...There is such a wealth of substance in these pages—a whole new view of women as artists and physicians, for example—the depth and breadth of material is truly astonishing. It is all intelligently organized and eminently readable.

Vermont Sunday Magazine

In this first of a two-volume survey of European women since 500 B.C., Bonnie Anderson and Judith Zinsser argue compellingly that throughout the recorded history of Europe, women's lives have been shaped more by their gender than by any other factor, whether class, religion, ethnicity, or nationality.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

Such a solid, synthetic work on European women's history will help answer those critics who have persisted in seeing women's history as marginal or peripheral...Compelling.

New York Times Book Review

Factors often ignored in histories of men, such as all the daily details that make up the hours, days, years of women's lives—food, clothing, shelter, contraception, diseases, religious practices—are described here in minute, lively and fascinating detail...The authors do not shy away from the difficult questions surrounding the history of women.

San Francisco Chronicle