History of Women in the West
Informed by the work of seventy-five distinguished historians, this five-volume series sets before us an engaging, panoramic chronicle that extends from antiquity to the present day.
Below is a list of in-print works in this collection, presented in series order or publication order as applicable.
History of Women in the West, Volume I: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints
The inaugural volume brings women from the margins of ancient history into the fore. It offers fresh insight into more than twenty centuries of Greek and Roman history and encompasses a landscape that stretches from the North Sea to the Mediterranean and from the Pillars of Hercules to the banks of the Indus. The authors draw upon a wide range of sources including gravestones, floor plans, papyrus rolls, vase paintings, and literary works to illustrate how representations of women evolved during this age. They journey into the minds of men and bring to light an imaginative history of women and of the relations between the sexes.
History of Women in the West, Volume II: Silences of the Middle Ages
Drawing on myriad sources—from the faint traces left by the rocking cradle at the site of an early medieval home to an antique illustration of Eve’s fall from grace—this second volume in the celebrated series offers new perspectives on women of the past. Twelve renowned historians from many countries examine the image of women in the masculine mind, their social condition, and their daily experience from the demise of the Roman Empire to the genesis of the Italian Renaissance.
History of Women in the West, Volume III: Renaissance and the Enlightenment Paradoxes
This book draws a richly detailed picture of women in early modern Europe, considering them in a context of work, marriage, and family. At the heart of this volume is “woman” as she appears in a wealth of representations, from simple woodcuts and popular literature to master paintings; and as the focal point of a debate—sometimes humorous, sometimes acrimonious—conducted in every field: letters, arts, philosophy, the sciences, and medicine. Women from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries emerge from these pages in remarkable diversity.
History of Women in the West, Volume IV: Emerging Feminism from Revolution to World War
This volume of the world-acclaimed series covers the period between the French Revolution and World War I. It gives us a vibrant picture of a bourgeois century, dynamic and expansive, in which the role of woman in the home was stressed, even as the economic pressures and opportunities of the industrial revolution drew her out of the house.
History of Women in the West, Volume V: Toward a Cultural Identity in the Twentieth Century
This fifth volume in the world-acclaimed series brings the history of women up to the present, placing it in the context of momentous events and profound social changes that have marked our time.