The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present

The Feminist Promise contributes to a burgeoning body of critical literature on the history of woman's rights and feminism in the United States. Elegantly crafted, the book offers a spirited argument for the place of feminism in the American democratic tradition. The author of two acclaimed studies of sex, class, and culture in New York City, Christine Stansell once again integrates vivid portraits of key figures into a sweeping narrative and illuminates the sources and consequences of crucial ideological conflicts. The Feminist Promise also provides astute assessments of the global context in which U.S. feminism took form, from the European revolutions of 1848 to the United Nations World Conferences on Women. Stansell deftly weaves together this complex history via three connecting threads. First, she traces tensions between “the politics of the mothers and the politics of the daughters” (p. xv), with mothers “leaning toward responsibility, propriety, and pragmatic expectations” and daughters voicing “contempt for the status quo” and embracing “utopian, flamboyant, and defiant” positions (p. xvi). Second, she highlights structures of male governance in the family and the polity. And third, she analyzes feminist deployments of universal constructs of woman. Throughout, Stansell presents feminism as “an argument, not received truth,” illuminating the dynamic, even volatile, debates among advocates as well as with adversaries (p. xix).