Women Philosophers Volume IEducation and Activism in Nineteenth-Century America - by Dorothy G Rogers (Hardcover)

About the Book

A discussion of the lives and achievements of the first women to read and translate the work of Hegel and other German philosophers in North America.

Book Synopsis

Illuminating a significant moment in the development of both American and feminist philosophical history, this study explores the experience and work of the women of the early American idealist movement. Beginning in St. Louis, Missouri in 1858, it became more influential as women joined and contributed to its development. Many of these women were pioneers in education and were expanding women's role in it as teachers and scholars. Some were also ardent feminists. Chief among them were Susan E. Blow, Anna C. Brackett, Grace C. Bibb, Ellen M. Mitchell, Lucia Ames Mead, Caroline E. Sherman, and May Wright Sewall.

Providing new insights into the work of the core group of women thinkers, this volume includes new information about women who became associated with the movement as it expanded and developed offshoots in other parts of the nation. This includes the origins of the philosophical-idealist roots of their pacifist thought and activism, apparent in their writings and speeches, and the neo-Hegelian movement.

Review Quotes

Rogers' book is, among other things, a provocative and compelling attempt to answer the question 'Who can be called a philosopher?' Through the lives of these women she charts a close connection between genre and opportunity, specialism and exclusion. In doing so she challenges those of use who seek to 'diversify the cannon' to reflect more deeply on what philosophy is and can be, and what the life of a practicing philosopher might look like.
Rachael Wiseman, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Liverpool, UK

This text illuminates the truth that "the 'mainstream' of intellectual thought is only one of the streams". It broadens and deepens the philosophical canon of North America by introducing women and diversity hitherto neglected and importantly provides the possibility for the current canon to become more comprehensive and more accurate as a reflection of the philosophical thinking in the early American Idealist movement.
Therese Boos Dykeman, Independent Scholar of Fairfield, USA, and author of American Women Philosophers 1650- 1930: Six Exemplary Thinkers

About the Author

Dorothy Rogers is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Montclair State University, USA. She is a member of MSU's Women's & Gender Studies Advisory Board and MSU's President's Commission on Affirmative Action. She also participates in the GLBTQ support program, Safe Space.