Belonging to the World: Women's Rights and American Constitutional Culture (Bicentennial Essays on the Bill of Rights) - Hardcover

Sandra F. VanBurkleo; VanBurkleo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195069714 ISBN 13: 9780195069716

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2001

Synopsis

Belonging to the World surveys the treatment of women in American law from the nation's earliest beginnings in British North America to the present. An original work of historical synthesis, the book aims to build bridges between fields long thought to be unbridgeable -- among them, the history of women, American constitutional and legal history, political theory, and law. It delineates the shifting relationships between American law practice and women, both within the family and elsewhere, as it looks beyond the campaign for women's suffrage to broader zones of contest and controversy. Women's stories and voices are used throughout to drive home the extraordinary range and persistence of female rebellion since the 1630s -- when Anne Hutchinson and Ann Hibbens decided to oppose forces of constraint in colonial New England -- to the present era of "post-feminist" retrenchment and backlash. As the narrative documents women's ongoing battles for such rights have been governed differently from men, often out of the state's line of vision, and that much of this difference reflected the survival of a unitary monarchical "head" in the constitutional and moral economy of households. Excellent for use in constitutional law and women's studies classes.

About this title

About the Author:

Sandra F. VanBurkleo, Assistant Professor of History, Wayne State University.

Review:

"Sandra VanBurkleo's magisterial analysis of women and the law is a brilliant book that will reshape the familiar narrative of American history. A powerfully written, subtle analysis of the gendered dimensions of American legal and constitutional traditions, "Belonging to the World" makes
complex legal analysis clear and accessible; it is rich in wit and wisdom."--Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa

"Beautifully written, broad in conception and full of scintillating insights, this book is sure to become the standard history of women's rights in America. A treasure for anyone who wants to know the story of women's place in American society."--Michael Les Benedict, Ohio State
University

"Sandra F. VanBurkleo executes brilliantly the difficult task of synthesizing the history of women's quest for liberty in the United States...VanBurkleo deftly ties together constitutional developments with women's history." - - American Historical Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0195069714
• ISBN 13: 9780195069716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432