Women's International Thought: Towards a New Canon

Description

This first anthology of women's international thought explores how women transformed the practice of international relations, from the early to middle twentieth century. Revealing a major distortion in current understandings of the history and theory of international relations, this anthology offers an alternative 'archive' of international thought. By including women as international thinkers it demonstrates their centrality to early international relations discourses in and on the Anglo-American world order and how they were excluded from its history and conceptualization. Encompassing 104 selections by 92 different thinkers, including Anna Julia Cooper, Margaret Sanger, Rosa Luxemburg, Judith Shklar, Hannah Arendt, Merze Tate, Susan Strange, Lucy P. Mair and Claudia Jones, it covers the widest possible range of subject matter, genres, ideological and political positions, and professional contexts. Organized into thirteen thematic sections, each with a substantial introductory essay, the anthology provides intellectual, political and biographical context, and original arguments, showing women's significance in international thought.

Patricia Owens is Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. Her previous publications include Economy of Force (2015), winner of BISA's Susan Strange Prize, Between War and Politics (2007) and, as co-editor, The Globalization of World Politics (2020). She is a former fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Proctor Fellow at Princeton University. Katharina Rietzler is Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Sussex. She is currently completing a book on American philanthropy, International Relations, and the problem of the public, 1913-1954. Her work has appeared in journals such as Modern Intellectual History, Diplomatic History and the Journal of Global History. She is a former Mellon Fellow in American History at the University of Cambridge. Kimberly Hutchings is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London. She is the author of works including Kant, Critique and Politics (1996), International Political Theory (1999), Hegel and Feminist Philosophy (2003), Time and World Politics: Thinking the Present (2008), Global Ethics: An Introduction (2nd edition, 2018) and co-author of Violence and Political Theory (2020) with Elizabeth Frazer. Sarah C. Dunstan is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Lecturer in the International History of Global Human Rights at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of Race, Rights and Reform (2021). Her work has also appeared in journals such as the Journal of Modern History, the Journal of the History of Ideas, the Journal of Contemporary History, and Gender & History.

'This majestic volume demands superlatives. It is not just the first anthology of women's international thought, and the largest anthology of international thought ever compiled: it is by far the most critical and original such collection and the one most likely to explode and re-order its field. A milestone achievement.' David Armitage, Harvard University 'This groundbreaking and robust collection powerfully showcases the richness and complexity of women's international thought. It achieves the impressive feat of capturing women's diverse ideas on the most urgent issues of the past - and present. This anthology will transform how we write and think about intellectual history and international relations.' Keisha N. Blain, University of Pittsburgh 'When is a discomforting challenge a gift? When it makes you rethink your assumptions in ways that excite you, invigorate you! This is precisely what Owens' and Reitzler's surprising history of international political thinking does. Having read this remarkable book, I now wonder why I've never realized that Black feminist Anna Julia Cooper was an international theorist or that Simone Weil's writings were so pertinent to today's international debates? Pulling back the curtain on these intellectual politics of exclusion is energizing.' Cynthia Enloe, Clark University 'This extraordinary anthology has been a long time coming. A stellar team has brought us the evidence and confirmation of women's critical voices in the history of international thought. There are names we occasionally come across, and others that have been hidden from view for too long. This volume will change the history of international thought, it must.' Glenda Sluga, HEC European University Institute and University of Sydney