The Feminist Promise

1792 to the Present

Christine Stansell

$45

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Modern Library Inc
15 September 2011

Social & cultural history; Feminism & feminist theory; Political oppression & persecution

An elegantly crafted and thoughtfully rendered history of feminism, from 1792 through the present.

""A unique, elegant, learned sweep through more than two centuries of women's efforts to overcome the most fundamental way that human beings have been wrongly divided into the leaders and the led. It's full of surprises from the past and guiding lights for the future.""-Gloria Steinem

For more than two centuries, the ranks of feminists have included dreamy idealists and conscientious reformers, erotic rebels and angry housewives, dazzling writers, shrewd political strategists, and thwarted workingwomen. Well-known leaders are sketched from new angles by Stansell, with her bracing eye for character- Mary Wollstonecraft, the passionate English writer who in 1792 published the first full-scale argument for the rights of women; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, brilliant and fearless; the imperious, quarrelsome Betty Friedan. But figures from other contexts, too, appear in an unforgettable new light, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who in the 1970s led a revolution in the constitutional interpretations of women's rights, and Toni Morrison, whose bittersweet prose gave voice to the modern black female experience.

Stansell accounts for the failures of feminism as well as the successes. She notes significant moments in the struggle for gender equality, such as the emergence in the early 1900s of the dashing ""New Woman""; the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote; the post-World War II collapse of suburban neo-Victorianism; and the radical feminism of the 1960s-all of which led to vast changes in American culture and society. The Feminist Promise dramatically updates our understanding of feminism, taking the story through the age of Reagan and into the era of international feminist movements that have swept the globe. Stansell provocatively insists that the fight for women's rights in developing countries ""cannot be separated from democracy's survival.""

A soaring work unprecedented in scope, historical depth, and literary appeal, The Feminist Promise is bound to become an authoritative source on this essential subject for decades to come on. At once a work of scholarship, political observation, and personal reflection, it is a book that speaks to the demands and challenges-individual, national, and international-of the twenty-first century.

By: Christine Stansell
Imprint: Modern Library Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 132mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 428g
ISBN: 9780812972023
ISBN 10: 0812972023
Pages: 528
Publication Date: 15 September 2011
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Inactive

Christine Stansell is the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Chicago. Her previous books include American Moderns- Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century and City of Women- Sex and Class in New York 1789-1860. She writes widely about matters of feminism and American history in print and online, including for The New Republic, Salon, and The Daily Beast. Among other awards, Stansell has received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. She has been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Mary Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Reviews for The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present

Stansell explodes popular ideas about the women's movement with a history that shows its complexity, and the massive internal and external obstacles women are still trying to overcome. --Chicago Sun-Times A unique, elegant, learned sweep through more than two centuries of women's efforts to overcome the most fundamental way that human beings have been wrongly divided into the leaders and the led. It's full of surprises from the past and guiding lights for the future. --Gloria Steinem Thrilling . . . a bold, brimming history . . . reminiscent of The Second Sex in its elegant gallop through centuries and cultures. --The Texas Observer Magisterial . . . [This book] will be a benchmark. --The Nation