A Woman Making History: Mary Ritter Beard Through Her Letters

Historian, social reformer, and women's suffrage campaigner, Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958) was one of the most prominent intellectuals of her day. Co-author with her husband, Charles Beard of "The Rise of American Civilization: and other works in US history, she also founded the modern field of women's history. This collection of her letters, offers in effect an intellectual biography which is considered to be better documented and more vivid than any previous book about her. The letters, sharply opinionated on public matters, persons and books, reveal a free-standing thinker whose self-confessed "obsession with women" led her both in and out of step with feminists of her generation. Illuminating many facets of Beard's partnership with her husband, they present just as forcefully her own dramatic passion for advancing knowledge and bringing about social change through the recovery of women's history.

Cott enriches the library of feminism by compiling the surviving letters of the pathbreaking historian Beard (1857-1958). Photos.
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