Description
Book SynopsisLouise Newman reinterprets an important period (1870s-1920s) in the history of women''s rights, focusing attention on a core contradiction at the heart of early feminist theory. At a time when white elites were concerned with imperialist projects and civilizing missions, progressive white women developed an explicit racial ideology to promote their cause, defending patriarchy for primitives while calling for its elimination among the civilized. Exploring how progressive white women at the turn of the century laid the intellectual groundwork for the feminist social movements that followed, Newman''s book thus speaks to contemporary debates concerning the effect of race on current feminist scholarship.
Trade ReviewA compelling investigation of how racial questions informed the creation of white feminist thought in the United States ... I highly recommend this book. * Journal of American History *
The book opens up the possibility of redirecting the framework through which a discourse of rights, any discourse of rights, can be understood. * Years Work in Critical Cultural Theory *
Because its argument is both widely drawn and carefully detailed, Newman's book is engaging, often insightful, and always provocative. * The Journal of American History *
