|
Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Hardback
Main Details
Title |
Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain
|
Authors and Contributors |
By (author) Karen O'Brien
|
Physical Properties |
Format:Hardback | Pages:320 | Dimensions(mm): Height 235,Width 157 |
|
Category/Genre | Literary studies - c 1500 to c 1800 |
ISBN/Barcode |
9780521773492
|
Classifications | Dewey:820.99287 |
---|
Audience | Professional & Vocational | |
|
Publishing Details |
Publisher |
Cambridge University Press
|
Imprint |
Cambridge University Press
|
Publication Date |
5 March 2009 |
Publication Country |
United Kingdom
|
Description
During the long eighteenth century, ideas of society and of social progress were first fully investigated. These investigations took place in the contexts of economic, theological, historical and literary writings which paid unprecedented attention to the place of women. Combining intellectual history with literary criticism, Karen O'Brien examines the central importance to the British Enlightenment both of women writers and of women as a subject of enquiry. She examines the work of a range of writers, including John Locke, Mary Astell, David Hume, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, T. R. Malthus, the Bluestockings, Catharine Macaulay, Mary Wollstonecraft and the first female historians of the early nineteenth century. She explores the way in which Enlightenment ideas created a language and a framework for understanding the moral agency and changing social roles of women, without which the development of nineteenth-century feminism would not have been possible.
Author Biography
Karen O'Brien is Professor of English at the University of Warwick.
Reviews'a well researched intellectual book ... scholars of the British Enlightenment of the eighteenth century would do well to study Professor Karen O'Brien's presentation.' Open History 'O'Brien employs a brilliant combination of exposition and argumentation.' Clio
|