The Feminist History Reader

The Feminist History Reader gathers together key articles, from some of the very best writers in the field, that have shaped the dynamic historiography of the past thirty years, and introduces students to the major shifts and turning points in this dialogue.

The Reader is divided into four sections:

• early feminist historians' writings following the move from reclaiming women's past through to the development of gender history
• the interaction of feminist history with ‘the linguistic turn’ and the challenges made by post-structuralism and the responses it provoked
• the work of lesbian historians and queer theorists in their challenge of the heterosexism of feminist history writing
• the work of black feminists and postcolonial critics/Third World scholars and how they have laid bare the ethnocentric and imperialist tendencies of feminist theory.

Each reading has a comprehensive and clearly structured introduction with a guide to further reading, this wide-ranging guide to developments in feminist history is essential reading for all students of history.

Over the past thirty years feminist historians have challenged and changed the way history is written. This self-critical dialogue between women has resulted in the development of a richly reflexive feminist historiography. The Feminist History Reader gathers together key articles that have shaped this historiography and introduces students to the major shifts and turning points in this dialogue.
The Reader is divided into four sections. Part one looks at early feminist historians' writings following the move from reclaiming women's past through to the development of gender history. Part two focuses on the interaction of feminist history with 'the linguistic turn' and addresses the challenges made by poststructuralism and the responses it provoked. Part three examines the work of lesbian historians and queer theorists in their challenge the heterosexism of feminist history writing. The final part of the Reader looks at the work of black feminists and postcolonial critics/Third World scholars and how they have laid bare the ethnocentric and imperialist tendencies of feminist theory. Each reading has a critical introduction and guide to further reading.
Including a comprehensive, general introduction, this is a wide ranging guide to developments in feminist history and is essential reading for all students of history.

Sue Morgan is Principal Lecturer in History and Head of the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Chichester. She is the author of A Passion for Purity: Ellice Hopkins and the politics of gender in the late-Victorian church (1999), co-editor of Masculinity and Spirituality in Victorian Culture (2000) and editor of Women, Religion and Feminism in Britain, 1750—1900 (2002).