Synopses & Reviews
Mary Ritter Beard was the single most important advocate and practioner of women’s history…She virtually invented the field, said historian and professor Barbara Sicherman of this visionary and ground-breaking historian who devoted her life to reconstructing women’s past—a past that had remained largely unstudied, undocumented, and unacknowledged. Beard held a firm conviction that women had a far greater impact on history than male historians had ever recognized and she believed that a knowledge of their own history would enable women to realize their full potential as active members of society. With this essential—and accessible—selection from her writings and speeches, Ann J. Lane restores Beard to her well-deserved place at the core of early-twentieth-century feminist history and theory.
Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958) was co-author, with Charles Beard, of The Rise of American Civilization and author of many other books.
Ann J. Lane is professor of history and director of women’s studies at the University of Virginia and is author of To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Synopsis
Mary Ritter Beard can be considered the "founding mother" of the field of American women's history. A visionary thinker, Beard devoted her life to reconstructing a history that had remained largely undocumented and unacknowledged before she began her groundbreaking work. She held a firm conviction that women had a far greater impact on history than male historians had ever recognized, and that a knowledge of their own history would enable women to realize their full potential as active members of society and agents of social change.
Today, Mary Ritter Beard is best remembered for her collaborative work with her husband, the historian Charles Beard, on such volumes as The Making of American Civilization. Her own pioneering work is, like the women's history she championed, under appreciated, despite the fact that it influences the work of such well-known contemporary historians as Gerda Lerner, laid fundamental groundwork for the entire field of women's studies, and has much to add to contemporary feminist debates regarding equality and difference, agency and victimization, and the conflicts between middle-class and working-class women.
Ann J. Lane's essential--and accessible--selection includes full headnotes, a 70-page critical and biographical essay, and a new preface that assesses Beard's legacy and the continuing relevance of her work. Making Women's History restores Beard to her well-deserved place at the core of early-twentieth-century feminist history and thought.
Synopsis
The only collection of work by a groundbreaking historian.