Women in World History - by Bonnie G Smith (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Women in World History brings together the most recent scholarship in women's and world history in a single volume covering the period from 1450 to the present, enabling readers to understand women's relationship to world developments over the past five hundred years.

Women have served the world as unfree people, often forced to migrate as slaves, trafficked sex workers, and indentured laborers working off debts. Diseases have migrated through women's bodies and women themselves have deliberately spread religious belief and fervor as well as ideas. They have been global authors, soldiers, and astronauts encircling the globe and moving far beyond it. They have written classics in political and social thought and crafted literary and artistic works alongside others who were revolutionaries and reform-minded activists.

Historical scholarship has shown that there is virtually no part of the world where women's presence is not manifest, whether in archives, oral testimonials, personal papers, the material record, evidence of disease and famine, myth and religious teachings, and myriad other forms of documentation. As these studies mount, the idea of surveying women's past on a global basis becomes daunting. This book aims to redress this situation and offer a synthetic world history of women in modern times.

Review Quotes

"College instructors looking for a decent textbook that includes a strong perspective on women's roles throughout history for an undergraduate world history survey course will find that Smith's Women in World History is a great selection. Widely celebrated as a leading scholar in women's and gender history, Smith (Rutgers Univ.) does a superb job of balancing theoretical concerns with historical inquires in this global study of women's history over the past 500 years, written primarily for an undergraduate audience. To many, this is an impossible task to achieve, but Smith has accomplished it triumphantly. Not only does she provide a concise and accurate narrative of historical events, she also celebrates women's agency in the globalized past. Even more impressively, the author is highly conscious of the contributions of women in non-Western societies to the formation of the modern world, making this a truly global world history book. The glossary at the end of each chapter is an effective guide for teaching and review, and the lists for further reading are particularly helpful for students who want to explore each topic in greater depth. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students." - CHOICE

"I remain in awe of the undertaking represented by Women in World History: 1450 to the Present. I plan to assign all or some of it in every class I teach ... Only a scholar of Smith's stature could pull this off ... Smith continues to do what few can: depict ordinary women's lives empathetically, reminding all of us that the placement of the silverware matters as much to world history as the politics of importing it or the ecological impacts of its manufacture." - World History Connected

"Bonnie Smith has taken on an impossible task-to summarize the history of women across the entire globe over the past five centuries-and performed it with aplomb! She has written a book that is engaging as well as comprehensive, kaleidoscopic in colorful detail while revealing common patterns and divergent pathways across every continent. With clear prose, ample illustrations, frequent summary conclusions, and a glossary and guide to further readings, Smith has created the ideal textbook for students and teachers of global history and women's history. And the book deserves an audience far beyond those categories. Anyone interested in the modern world and how it came to be will find fascinating insights on every page." --Paul Ropp, Distinguished Professor of History, Clark University, USA

"At last a comprehensive history of women that truly spans the globe. Smith covers not just the expected fields of culture, economics, and society, but also demonstrates how women figured in public events such as nation building, imperialism, revolution, and war. In her account women never exist simply as isolated entities. Explanations of what happened to them are always placed in the context of what was happening to men and masculinity. Sometimes women became aware of how women lived their lives in other places and drew on this knowledge to fashion responses to their own situations. Given the breadth of knowledge and depth of insight displayed in this book, it will not only enlighten students; it will become a useful reference tool for specialists." --Anne Walthall, Professor of History, University of California Irvine, USA

"This is an exhilaratingly revisionist narrative of world history. It accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of conceptualizing a history within which stories of differently positioned women and girls are brought together. She refreshingly demonstrates the possibilities still remaining within a grand narrative. The book is an exceptional work of critical history that informs and challenges in equal parts. Written throughout with great elegance and verve, it wears its prodigous scholarship lightly. This is the book, by a scholar at the top of her game, that will revolutionize how world history is studied and taught." --Mrinalini Sinha, Alice Freeman Palmer Professor, University of Michigan, USA

About the Author