Mary Ritter Beard : a sourcebook - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805205764 ISBN 13: 9780805205763

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.

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Review

"Lane gives a succinct glimpse of Beard s life and thought, exemplified by well-chosen and telling passages from her writing and speeches. . . . Beard s basic message is still valid and still a challenge to women of today." "Choice Magazine""

"Lane gives a succinct glimpse of Beard's life and thought, exemplified by well-chosen and telling passages from her writing and speeches. . . . Beard's basic message is still valid and still a challenge to women of today." --Choice Magazine

Synopsis

Mary Bitter Beard (1876--1958) can rightly be called the founding mother of the field of American women's history. A genuinely visionary thinker, Beard devoted her life to reconstructing women's past -- a past that had remained largely unstudied, undocumented, and unacknowledged before she began her ground-breaking work. She held a firm conviction that women had a far greater impact on history than male historians had ever recognised, and she believed that a knowledge of their own history would enable women to realise their full potential as active members of society and agents of social change. Ann Lane collects vital pieces from Mary Bitter Beard's work and accompanies each with a headnote tracing the development of Beard's thought and illuminating the contradictions as well as the perceptiveness of her work. First published as Mary Ritter Beard: A Sourcebook, the collection begins with a seventy-page critical and biographical essay that stands as the fullest account to date of the life of Mary Ritter Beard, and includes a new preface that assesses Beard's legacy and the continuing relevance of her work into the 21st century.

Edition details

• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805205764
• ISBN 13: 9780805205763
• Binding: Paperback