This essential volume brings together more than forty of the most
important historical writings on feminism, covering 150 years of the
struggle for women's freedom. Spanning the American Revolution to the
first decades of the twentieth century, these works-many long out of
print or forgotten-are finally brought out of obscurity and into the
light of contemporary analysis and criticism.
This richly
diverse collection contains excerpts from books, essays, speeches,
documents, and letters, as well as poetry, drama, and fiction by major
feminist writers, including: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George Sand, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Abigail Adams, Emma Goldman, Friedrich Engels, Sojourner
Truth, Susan B. Anthony, John Stuart Mill, Margaret Sanger, Virginia
Woolf, and many others.
The pieces in Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings cover
the crucial challenges faced by women, including marriage as an
instrument of oppression; a woman's desire to control her own body; the
economic independence of women; and the search for selfhood, and
extensive commentaries by the editor help the reader see the historical
context of each selection.
