Women's Early American Historical Narratives

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9780142437100
• ISBN10: 0142437107
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-24
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

This fascinating collection presents a rare look at women writers' first-hand perspectives on early American history. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries many women authors began to write historical analysis, thereby taking on an essential role in defining the new American Republicanism. Like their male counterparts, these writers worried over the definition and practice of both public and private virtue, human equality, and the principles of rationalism. In contrast to male authors, however, female writers inevitably addressed the issue of inequality of the sexes. This collection includes writings that employ a wide range of approaches, from straightforward reportage to poetical historical narratives, from travel writing to historical drama, and even accounts in textbook format, designed to provide women with exercises in critical thinking-training they rarely received through their traditional education. Edited with an introduction and notes by Sharon M. Harris

Author Biography

Sharon M. Harris is the Lorraine Sherley Professor of Literature at Texas Christian University, co-editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, and president and founder of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. xxvii
Note on the Texts	p. xxix
"The History of Maria Kittle" (1790-1791)	p. 1
"The Hudson" (1793), "On seeing a Print ..." (1792), "July the Fourteenth" (1793)	p. 36
"Observations on Female Abilities" (1798)	p. 56
A Summary History of New-England (1799)	p. 93
History ... of the American Revolution (1805)	p. 111
The Female Enthusiast: A Tragedy in Five Acts (1807)	p. 156
Sketches of Universal History (1811)	p. 213
Observations on the Real Rights of Women (1818)	p. 229
Sketches of History, Life, and Manners, in the United States (1826)	p. 250
History of the United States, or Republic of America (1828; 2nd rev. ed.)	p. 277
Explanatory Notes	p. 309
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.