A Band of Noble Women: Radical Politics in the Women's Peace Movement (Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution): Racial Politics in the Women’s Peace Movement - Hardcover

Melinda Plastas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815632576 ISBN 13: 9780815632573

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2011

Synopsis

A Band of Noble Women brings together the histories of the women’s peace movement and the black women’s club and social reform movement in a story of community and consciousness building between the world wars. Believing that achievement of improved race relations was a central step in establishing world peace, African American and white women initiated new political alliances that challenged the practices of Jim Crow segregation and promoted the leadership of women in transnational politics. Under the auspices of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), they united the artistic agenda of the Harlem Renaissance, suffrage-era organizing tactics, and contemporary debates on race in their efforts to expand women’s influence on the politics of war and peace. Plastas shows how WILPF espoused middle-class values and employed gendered forms of organization building, educating thousands of people on issues ranging from U.S. policies in Haiti and Liberia to the need for global disarmament. Highlighting WILPF chapters in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Baltimore, the author examines the successes of this interracial movement as well as its failures. A Band of Noble Women enables us to examine more fully the history of race in U.S. women’s movements and illuminates the role of the women’s peace movement in setting the foundation for the civil rights movement.

About this title

Review:

This book is a serious scholarly contribution to the field of peace and women's history, and the author is to be commended for her efforts.--Charles F. Howlett, Molloy College "Journal of Cold War Studies "

About the Author:

Melinda Plastas is visiting assistant professor in the Women and Gender Studies Program and the Department of Politics at Bates College in Maine. Her research interests include the politics of race and gender in U.S. women’s social movements.

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0815632576
• ISBN 13: 9780815632573
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 322