Synopses & Reviews
Making Women's Histories showcases the transformations that the intellectual and political production of womens history has engendered across time and space. It considers the difference womens and gender history has made to and within national fields of study, and to what extent the wider historiography has integrated this new knowledge. What are the accomplishments of womens and gender history? What are its shortcomings? What is its future? The contributors discuss their discovery of womens histories,the multiple turns the field has taken, and how place affected the course of this scholarship. Noted scholars of womens and gender history, they stand atop such historiographically-defined vantage points as Tsarist Russia, the British Empire in Egypt and India, Qing-dynasty China, and the U.S. roiling through the 1960s. From these and other peaks they gaze out at the world around them, surveying trajectories in the creation of womens histories in recent and distant pasts and envisioning their futures.
Review
"Making Womens Histories is an innovative collection that brings together state-of-the-art essays on developments in national, continental, transnational, and thematic areas. In its attention to the politics of womens history—personal and structural connections to womens movements, the impact of nationalism and imperialism, the impact of globalization—the volume reminds us how important the history we write and teach is for making the world a better place."-Leila J. Rupp,University of California, Santa Barbara
Review
"A smart, insightful, and thought-provoking book. The juxtaposition of nationally/regionally based historiographical essays by leading scholars offers striking new insights into the origins and diverse trajectories of womens and gender history, and into the ways in which feminist scholarship is informing comparative, transnational, and international histories. A must-read for anyone interested in world-historical scholarship."-Birgitte Søland,The Ohio State University
Review
"This outstanding collection contributes to the "usable past" and should help readers understand the present and shape the future. Summing Up: Highly recommended."-CHOICE,
Synopsis
Examines how women's histories are explored and explained around the world
Making Women's Histories showcases the transformations that the intellectual and political production of women's history has engendered across time and space. It considers the difference women's and gender history has made to and within national fields of study, and to what extent the wider historiography has integrated this new knowledge. What are the accomplishments of women's and gender history? What are its shortcomings? What is its future?
The contributors discuss their discovery of women's histories, the multiple turns the field has taken, and how place affected the course of this scholarship. Noted scholars of women's and gender history, they stand atop such historiographically-defined vantage points as Tsarist Russia, the British Empire in Egypt and India, Qing-dynasty China, and the U.S. roiling through the 1960s. From these and other peaks they gaze out at the world around them, surveying trajectories in the creation of women's histories in recent and distant pasts and envisioning their futures.
About the Author
Pamela S. Nadell is Professor of History and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University. She is the author of Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Womens Ordination, 1889-1985, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and co-editor of Women and American Judaism: Historical Perspectives. Kate Haulman is Assistant Professor of History at American University. She is the author of The Politics of Fashion in Eighteenth- Century America.