Writing Gender History

The second edition of this fantastic text includes a new chapter dedicated to race, gender and sexuality in colonial and transnational history. In focusing on the practical application of history in historical writing, the author provides a lucid contextualization of the role of gender in history, covering key feminist figures and critical debates.



How has feminist scholarship changed history? Writing Gender History explores the evolution of historical writing about women and gender from the 1930s until the early twenty-first century. With chapters on the history of Europe, the USA, colonial India and Africa, the disucssion moves from women's history to gender history, and then to poststructuralist challenges to that history. This revised edition includes an exciting new chapter looking at recent scholarship on race, gender and sexuality in colonial and transnational history, and on the history of the body. Highly accessibly but also encouraging new debate, this book provides students with a comprehensive understanding of gender history, as well as its possible future. Reviews of the first edition: 'Ingenuity and perspicuity shine through Laura Lee Downs' superb distillation and analysis of women's and gender history. To understand accomplishments and changes in the field, put this book at the top of your list.' Nancy F. Cott, Professor of American History, Harvard University. 'Puts the entire range of women's and gender history into context, showing how it challenges the conventional pieties, opens up new veins of research, and transforms our understanding of every aspect of history. Her command of the literature is simply astounding...Sure to be seen as a landmark in the development of the field of history in the broadest sense.' Lynn Hunt, Professor of Modern European History, UCLA.