Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries

Description

Uncontrollable Women is a history of radical, reformist and revolutionary women between the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. Very few of them are well-known today; some were unknown even in their own day. All of them contributed something to the world we now inhabit. At a time when women were supposed to leave politics to men they spoke, wrote, marched, organised, asked questions, challenged power structures, sometimes went to prison and even died. History has not usually been kind to them, and they have frequently been pushed into asides or footnotes, dismissed as secondary, or spoken over, for, or through by men and sometimes other women. In this book, they take centre stage in both their own stories and those of others, and in doing so bring different voices to the more familiar accounts of the period. These women and many others played a part in developing political ideas and freedoms as we know them today, and some fought battles which still remain to be won or raised questions that are still unresolved. These are their stories. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Epigraph Contents Illustrations Foreword Acknowledgements Notes on text Introduction PART ONE Frantic ’Midst the Democratic Storm Chapter 1 The Furies of Hell Chapter 2 Wicked Little Democrats Chapter 3 Such Mighty Rage PART TWO More Turbulent than the Men Chapter 4 Determined Enemies to Good Order Chapter 5 The Most Abandoned of their Sex Chapter 6 Persistent Amazons Figures PART THREE Monsters in Female Form Chapter 7 Beyond Expression Horrible Chapter 8 This Infatuated Family Chapter 9 The She-Champion of Impiety PART FOUR Women Without Masters Chapter 10 Very Clever, Awfully Revolutionary Chapter 11 Petticoat Government Epilogue: An Ignorant Woman Notes Bibliography Index