- Department of Political Science
2171 Nanovic Jenkins Halls
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556 - 5745140993
Eileen M . Hunt
University of Notre Dame, Political Science, Faculty Member
- Women's Human Rights, Political Theory, History of Political Thought, Human Rights, Gender and religion (Women s Studies), Women's History, and 15 moreJohn Rawls, Enlightenment, Political Science, History Of Political Thought (Political Science), John Stuart Mill, Liberalism, Political Philosophy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Women's Rights, Feminist Philosophy, Democratic Theory, Modern Political Philosophy, History of the Family, Frankenstein, and Children's Rights(John Rawls, Enlightenment, Political Science, History Of Political Thought (Political Science), John Stuart Mill, Liberalism, Political Philosophy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Women's Rights, Feminist Philosophy, Democratic Theory, Modern Political Philosophy, History of the Family, Frankenstein, and Children's Rights)edit
- I am a political theorist who uses the history of political thought, especially the feminist strand starting with Mar... moreI am a political theorist who uses the history of political thought, especially the feminist strand starting with Mary Wollstonecraft and her long chain of international interlocutors, to engage the still-visionary questions of defining rights and who belongs under their banner. My current work focuses on Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary Shelley, and the enduring political relevance of her speculative fictions 'Frankenstein' and 'The Last Man' (and their many sci-fi spin-offs) for theorizing justice in an age of genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and pandemics.(I am a political theorist who uses the history of political thought, especially the feminist strand starting with Mary Wollstonecraft and her long chain of international interlocutors, to engage the still-visionary questions of defining rights and who belongs under their banner. My current work focuses on Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary Shelley, and the enduring political relevance of her speculative fictions 'Frankenstein' and 'The Last Man' (and their many sci-fi spin-offs) for theorizing justice in an age of genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and pandemics.)edit
What are the obligations of humanity to the artificial creatures we make? And what are the corresponding rights of those creatures, whether they are learning machines or genetically modified organisms? To respond to these vital questions... more
What are the obligations of humanity to the artificial creatures we make? And what are the corresponding rights of those creatures, whether they are learning machines or genetically modified organisms? To respond to these vital questions for our age of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence (AI), we need to delve into the capacious mind and imaginative genius of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851). Her novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) and The Last Man (1826) precipitated a modern political strain of science fiction concerned with the ethics of making artificial life and life artificial through science, technology, and other cultural change. By putting Shelley and some classics of modern political science fiction into dialogue with contemporary political science and philosophy, this book explodes three apocalyptic fears at the fore of twenty-first-century political thought on AI and genetic engineering. These are the prevailing myths that artificial forms of life will (1) end the world, (2) destroy nature, or (3) extinguish love. i. A Threshold for Modern Political Science Fiction Shelley unleashed a new, or modern, political strain of science fiction with her novels Frankenstein and The Last Man. "She picked up the novel-as-itwas," the American feminist science fiction writer and critic Joanna Russ argued, "thought 'I can't use this,' and created a new field." 1 This new field, I contend, was modern political science fiction. It consists of literary and other artistic works of the imagination with a distinctively futuristic and
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This chapter provides the first analysis of Mary Wollstonecraft as a proto-intersectional political philosopher. Wollstonecraft’s major contributions to modern political philosophy stem from her visionary use of the concept of... more
This chapter provides the first analysis of Mary Wollstonecraft as a proto-intersectional
political philosopher. Wollstonecraft’s major contributions to modern
political philosophy stem from her visionary use of the concept of intersectionality
to diagnose the causes, symptoms, and remedies of gender-, race-, and class-based
inequality and oppression. Wollstonecraft’s theory of social justice—the most egalitarian
of the Enlightenment era—aimed to eliminate such arbitrary inequalities, in
part through the legislation and protection of rights for women and other historically
oppressed groups. Wollstonecraft should thus be understood as a philosophical forerunner
of contemporary third-wave feminists, who use intersectionality as a foundational
concept for theorizing social justice.
political philosopher. Wollstonecraft’s major contributions to modern
political philosophy stem from her visionary use of the concept of intersectionality
to diagnose the causes, symptoms, and remedies of gender-, race-, and class-based
inequality and oppression. Wollstonecraft’s theory of social justice—the most egalitarian
of the Enlightenment era—aimed to eliminate such arbitrary inequalities, in
part through the legislation and protection of rights for women and other historically
oppressed groups. Wollstonecraft should thus be understood as a philosophical forerunner
of contemporary third-wave feminists, who use intersectionality as a foundational
concept for theorizing social justice.
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A synopsis of John Stuart Mill's awareness of the work of Mary Wollstonecraft and the similarities and differences between their respective approaches to defending the rights of women. Prepared for the "Interlocutors" section of THE... more
A synopsis of John Stuart Mill's awareness of the work of Mary Wollstonecraft and the similarities and differences between their respective approaches to defending the rights of women. Prepared for the "Interlocutors" section of THE WOLLSTONECRAFTIAN MIND (2019).
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Editorial Introduction to THE WOLLSTONECRAFTIAN MIND (ROUTLEDGE, 2019). Summary of 38 chapters by an international team of contributors on Wollstonecraft's philosophy, her sources, her interlocutors, and her legacies. First comprehensive... more
Editorial Introduction to THE WOLLSTONECRAFTIAN MIND (ROUTLEDGE, 2019). Summary of 38 chapters by an international team of contributors on Wollstonecraft's philosophy, her sources, her interlocutors, and her legacies. First comprehensive philosophical compendium or handbook on Wollstonecraft, also covering her relevance for political science, political theory, feminist theory, intellectual history, history of political thought, and literary studies.
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Une histoire de fantômes, un roman noir pour jeunes lecteurs, et une pièce d’histoire alternative : "Le Frankenstein du cageot à pommes" tisse plusieurs fils pour montrer comment Mary Shelley, encore jeune, aurait pu trouver l’inspiration... more
Une histoire de fantômes, un roman noir pour jeunes lecteurs, et une pièce d’histoire alternative : "Le Frankenstein du cageot à pommes" tisse plusieurs fils pour montrer comment Mary Shelley, encore jeune, aurait pu trouver l’inspiration pour écrire Frankenstein par une nuit fatidique sur les rives du Lac Léman. Rencontrez la jeune fille quelques années auparavant lorsqu’elle découvre un conte français, publié en 1790, et son inventeur nommé Frankénsteïn qui apporte avec lui un robot humanoïde grandeur nature. Imaginez qu’elle aurait pu découvrir cette nouvelle parmi les textes ayant appartenu à sa mère, la célèbre écrivaine Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) qui séjourna en France en 1792-95 et partagea certains espoirs des révolutionnaires.
S’appuyant sur des sources sûres (ou presque !), "Le Frankenstein du cageot à pommes" entremêle histoire, fantaisie et des recherches dans les archives françaises. Découvrez aussi des notices historiques et biographiques sur la Révolution française, Mary Shelley et le roman d’épouvante Frankenstein. Traduction fr. du "Frankenstein of the Apple Crate: A Possibly True Story of the Monster's Origins", par Vincent Jauneau.
Disponible sur Amazon! https://www.amazon.fr/Frankenstein-Du-Cageot-Pommes-Comment/dp/0998443239/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1551734771&sr=1-1&keywords=frankenstein+du+cageot+a+pommes
S’appuyant sur des sources sûres (ou presque !), "Le Frankenstein du cageot à pommes" entremêle histoire, fantaisie et des recherches dans les archives françaises. Découvrez aussi des notices historiques et biographiques sur la Révolution française, Mary Shelley et le roman d’épouvante Frankenstein. Traduction fr. du "Frankenstein of the Apple Crate: A Possibly True Story of the Monster's Origins", par Vincent Jauneau.
Disponible sur Amazon! https://www.amazon.fr/Frankenstein-Du-Cageot-Pommes-Comment/dp/0998443239/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1551734771&sr=1-1&keywords=frankenstein+du+cageot+a+pommes
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"The Frankenstein of the Apple Crate" is a work of alternative history, a ghost story, and a Gothic novel for readers age 8 and up. It builds on a true scholarly discovery* to imagine how a young writer found the idea for the legend of... more
"The Frankenstein of the Apple Crate" is a work of alternative history, a ghost story, and a Gothic novel for readers age 8 and up. It builds on a true scholarly discovery* to imagine how a young writer found the idea for the legend of Frankenstein. With the help of a ghost called Mother, the girl recalls a French tale of a helpful robot published years earlier, and retells it as the first Gothic thriller.
*Douthwaite, The Frankenstein of 1790, chap. 2.
35 pages, 33 color illustrations by Karen Neis, with historical and biographical notes by Eileen Hunt Botting and Greg Kucich. Seattle: Honey Girl Books and Gifts, 2018. Available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Apple-Crate-Possibly-Monsters/dp/0998443204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541450911&sr=8-1&keywords=frankenstein+of+the+apple+crate
*Douthwaite, The Frankenstein of 1790, chap. 2.
35 pages, 33 color illustrations by Karen Neis, with historical and biographical notes by Eileen Hunt Botting and Greg Kucich. Seattle: Honey Girl Books and Gifts, 2018. Available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Apple-Crate-Possibly-Monsters/dp/0998443204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541450911&sr=8-1&keywords=frankenstein+of+the+apple+crate
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Now Available from Penn Press "Treating the creature as an abandoned and abused child, Eileen Hunt Botting brilliantly uses the novel Frankenstein to mount a series of thought experiments that interrogate the enduring political... more
Now Available from Penn Press
"Treating the creature as an abandoned and abused child, Eileen Hunt Botting brilliantly uses the novel Frankenstein to mount a series of thought experiments that interrogate the enduring political questions of whether children have rights and, if so, which ones. Deftly summarizing the positions of such writers as Hobbes, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, and Onora O'Neill, Botting persuasively argues for a child's universal rights to care, identity, and love—rights that Botting here extends to disabled, stateless, and genetically modified children."—Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los Angeles
"While there has been a great deal written within literary theory and criticism on the novel Frankenstein, and there is a substantial, and growing, literature within moral and political philosophy on the rights of children and the obligations of parents, Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child is the first book to bring these two areas of inquiry together. Eileen Hunt Botting's fascinating analysis shows how literary texts, suitably reinterpreted, can make better sense of key philosophical claims."—David Archard, Queen's University Belfast
"Readers of Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child will never again be able to read Frankenstein simply as a work of Gothic fiction that questioned the counter-theology and scientific bravado of its day. Eileen Hunt Botting, more thoroughly than any previous commentator, has revealed the philosophical content of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and has firmly placed it in the context of modern political thought."—Gordon Schochet, Rutgers University
In Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child, Eileen Hunt Botting contends that Frankenstein is a profound work of speculative fiction designed to engage a radical moral and political question: do children have rights?
232 pages | 6 x 9
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4962-0 | $39.95s | £33.00
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9447-7 | $39.95s | £26.00
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series
"Treating the creature as an abandoned and abused child, Eileen Hunt Botting brilliantly uses the novel Frankenstein to mount a series of thought experiments that interrogate the enduring political questions of whether children have rights and, if so, which ones. Deftly summarizing the positions of such writers as Hobbes, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, and Onora O'Neill, Botting persuasively argues for a child's universal rights to care, identity, and love—rights that Botting here extends to disabled, stateless, and genetically modified children."—Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los Angeles
"While there has been a great deal written within literary theory and criticism on the novel Frankenstein, and there is a substantial, and growing, literature within moral and political philosophy on the rights of children and the obligations of parents, Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child is the first book to bring these two areas of inquiry together. Eileen Hunt Botting's fascinating analysis shows how literary texts, suitably reinterpreted, can make better sense of key philosophical claims."—David Archard, Queen's University Belfast
"Readers of Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child will never again be able to read Frankenstein simply as a work of Gothic fiction that questioned the counter-theology and scientific bravado of its day. Eileen Hunt Botting, more thoroughly than any previous commentator, has revealed the philosophical content of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and has firmly placed it in the context of modern political thought."—Gordon Schochet, Rutgers University
In Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child, Eileen Hunt Botting contends that Frankenstein is a profound work of speculative fiction designed to engage a radical moral and political question: do children have rights?
232 pages | 6 x 9
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4962-0 | $39.95s | £33.00
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9447-7 | $39.95s | £26.00
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series
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How can women’s rights be seen as a universal value rather than a Western value imposed upon the rest of the world? Addressing this question, Eileen Hunt Botting offers the first comparative study of writings by Mary Wollstonecraft and... more
How can women’s rights be seen as a universal value rather than a Western value imposed upon the rest of the world? Addressing this question, Eileen Hunt Botting offers the first comparative study of writings by Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. Although Wollstonecraft and Mill were the primary philosophical architects of the view that women’s rights are human rights, Botting shows how non-Western thinkers have revised and internationalized their original theories since the nineteenth century. Botting explains why this revised and internationalized theory of women’s human rights—grown out of Wollstonecraft and Mill but stripped of their Eurocentric biases—is an important contribution to thinking about human rights in truly universal terms.
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Mary Wollstonecraft’s visionary treatise, originally published in 1792, was the first book to present women’s rights as an issue of universal human rights. Ideal for coursework and classroom study, this comprehensive edition of... more
Mary Wollstonecraft’s visionary treatise, originally published in 1792, was the first book to present women’s rights as an issue of universal human rights. Ideal for coursework and classroom study, this comprehensive edition of Wollstonecraft’s heartfelt feminist argument includes illuminating essays by leading scholars that highlight the author’s significant contributions to modern political philosophy, making a powerful case for her as one of the most substantive political thinkers of the Enlightenment era. No other scholarly work to date has examined as closely both the ideological moorings and the enduring legacy of Wollstonecraft’s groundbreaking and courageous discourse.
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Family Feuds is the first sustained comparative study of the place of the family in the political thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Eileen Hunt Botting argues that Wollstonecraft recognized both... more
Family Feuds is the first sustained comparative study of the place of the family in the political thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Eileen Hunt Botting argues that Wollstonecraft recognized both Rousseau’s and Burke’s influential stature in late eighteenth-century debates about the family. Wollstonecraft critically identified them as philosophical and political partners in the defense of the patriarchal structure of the family, yet she used Rousseau’s conceptions of childhood education and maternal empowerment and Burke’s understanding of the family as the affective basis for political socialization as a theoretical foundation for her own egalitarian vision of the family. It is this ideal of the egalitarian family, Botting contends, that is one of the most important yet least appreciated legacies of Enlightenment political thought.
“...valuable for anyone who is interested in eighteenth-century political thought regarding the transformation of the family.” — Journal for the Study of Marriage & Spirituality
“Commendable are the range of writings engaged, lack of discrimination between non-fictional and fictional works, and welcome restraint in not discrediting any of their views on family…” — American Historical Review
“This book reminds us of the importance of theorizing the family/state relationship. Botting makes an invaluable contribution to a rethinking of the genesis of the Western commitment to gender equality in the family.” — Perspectives on Politics
“Family Feuds is an impressively innovative study of the family and of imaginative models of family life in late eighteenth-century political writings. In particular, it successfully transforms the stature of Mary Wollstonecraft as a leading theorist on the family, as well as on women’s rights, and establishes the continuity and continuing relevance of her thought. This is a timely and original book; in its ambitious scope, freshness, and readability unlike any other. It is bound to change simplistic perceptions of Wollstonecraft.” — Lyndall Gordon, author of Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft
“Among this book's substantial merits are its systematic treatment of the family as a site and source of political attitudes, values, and feelings in each of the three theorists’ work. The richness of the book and the obvious analytic strengths of the author suggest that Family Feuds will be a significant and accessible study.” — Elizabeth Rose Wingrove, author of Rousseau’s Republican Romance
“Family Feuds demonstrates the central role of the family in Enlightenment political thought. It is a beautifully written book.” — Wendy Gunther-Canada, author of Rebel Writer: Mary Wollstonecraft and Enlightenment Politics
<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=DIirNHqjUqwC&lpg=PP1&dq=Family%20Feuds%20Wollstonecraft&pg=PP1&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe>
“...valuable for anyone who is interested in eighteenth-century political thought regarding the transformation of the family.” — Journal for the Study of Marriage & Spirituality
“Commendable are the range of writings engaged, lack of discrimination between non-fictional and fictional works, and welcome restraint in not discrediting any of their views on family…” — American Historical Review
“This book reminds us of the importance of theorizing the family/state relationship. Botting makes an invaluable contribution to a rethinking of the genesis of the Western commitment to gender equality in the family.” — Perspectives on Politics
“Family Feuds is an impressively innovative study of the family and of imaginative models of family life in late eighteenth-century political writings. In particular, it successfully transforms the stature of Mary Wollstonecraft as a leading theorist on the family, as well as on women’s rights, and establishes the continuity and continuing relevance of her thought. This is a timely and original book; in its ambitious scope, freshness, and readability unlike any other. It is bound to change simplistic perceptions of Wollstonecraft.” — Lyndall Gordon, author of Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft
“Among this book's substantial merits are its systematic treatment of the family as a site and source of political attitudes, values, and feelings in each of the three theorists’ work. The richness of the book and the obvious analytic strengths of the author suggest that Family Feuds will be a significant and accessible study.” — Elizabeth Rose Wingrove, author of Rousseau’s Republican Romance
“Family Feuds demonstrates the central role of the family in Enlightenment political thought. It is a beautifully written book.” — Wendy Gunther-Canada, author of Rebel Writer: Mary Wollstonecraft and Enlightenment Politics
<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=DIirNHqjUqwC&lpg=PP1&dq=Family%20Feuds%20Wollstonecraft&pg=PP1&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe>
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Published for the first time, Hannah Mather Crocker’s early 19th-century Reminiscences presents a unique history of Boston and its environs from the 1620s to the 1820s. A leading female writer and women’s rights advocate, and the... more
Published for the first time, Hannah Mather Crocker’s early 19th-century Reminiscences presents a unique history of Boston and its environs from the 1620s to the 1820s. A leading female writer and women’s rights advocate, and the granddaughter of Cotton Mather, Crocker provides a significant resource for women’s historians, scholars of feminist political thought, and early American historians alike.
This book contains a masterfully transcribed and annotated version of the text and appendix from the original manuscript, which has been housed at the NEHGS archives for over 130 years. Crocker’s history chronicles everything from Puritan law, colonial and provincial history, interactions with the British, French, and Native Americans, the establishment of Boston churches, and Boston’s economic growth, paying special attention to women’s work and culture. This book also presents Crocker’s treasury of poetry including a poem by Phillis Wheatley dedicated to Hannah, and a comical recipe for chowder.
"What a remarkable new resource for historians of Boston and New England! I found reading it absolutely fascinating, not only for the insights it offers into the author and her own times, but also for the many useful nuggets of information (or possible misinformation) it contains about Boston's early history. The editorial interventions help the reader to understand the text and its production, essential for assessing its value."
—Mary Beth Norton, Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, Cornell University and
author of In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
“Hannah Mather Crocker’s Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston—presented in two original versions—gives us a charming, anecdotal view of a city and its peoples now long gone. It will be prized by historians, genealogists, and readers interested in Boston and its early history as recounted by a native daughter of the city.”
—D. Brenton Simons, President and CEO, New England Historic Genealogical Society; author of Boston Beheld: Antique Town and Country Views
This book contains a masterfully transcribed and annotated version of the text and appendix from the original manuscript, which has been housed at the NEHGS archives for over 130 years. Crocker’s history chronicles everything from Puritan law, colonial and provincial history, interactions with the British, French, and Native Americans, the establishment of Boston churches, and Boston’s economic growth, paying special attention to women’s work and culture. This book also presents Crocker’s treasury of poetry including a poem by Phillis Wheatley dedicated to Hannah, and a comical recipe for chowder.
"What a remarkable new resource for historians of Boston and New England! I found reading it absolutely fascinating, not only for the insights it offers into the author and her own times, but also for the many useful nuggets of information (or possible misinformation) it contains about Boston's early history. The editorial interventions help the reader to understand the text and its production, essential for assessing its value."
—Mary Beth Norton, Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, Cornell University and
author of In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
“Hannah Mather Crocker’s Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston—presented in two original versions—gives us a charming, anecdotal view of a city and its peoples now long gone. It will be prized by historians, genealogists, and readers interested in Boston and its early history as recounted by a native daughter of the city.”
—D. Brenton Simons, President and CEO, New England Historic Genealogical Society; author of Boston Beheld: Antique Town and Country Views
Research Interests: Political Theory, Women's History, Genealogy, Colonial America, Urban History, and 12 morePolitical Science, Liberalism, Women's Rights, Enlightenment, History of Political Thought, Early American Literature, Early Republic--American History, Church History, Gender and religion (Women s Studies), New England (History), History of Boston, and Hannah Mather Crocker
This book moves beyond traditional readings of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) and his relevance to contemporary democracy by emphasizing the relationship of his life and work to modern feminist thought. Within the resurgence of political... more
This book moves beyond traditional readings of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) and his relevance to contemporary democracy by emphasizing the relationship of his life and work to modern feminist thought. Within the resurgence of political interest in Tocqueville during the past two decades, especially in the United States, there has been significant scholarly attention to the place of gender, race, and colonialism in his work. This is the first edited volume to gather together a range of this creative scholarship. It reveals a tidal shift in the reception history of Tocqueville as a result of his serious engagement by feminist, gender, postcolonial, and critical race theorists.
The volume highlights the expressly normative nature of Tocqueville’s project, thus providing an overdue counterweight to the conventional understanding of Tocquevillean America as an actual place in time and history. By reading Tocqueville alongside the writings of early women’s rights activists, ethnologists, critical race theorists, contemporary feminists, neoconservatives, and his French contemporaries, among others, this book produces a variety of Tocquevilles that unsettles the hegemonic view of his work.
Seen as a philosophical source and a political authority for modern democracies since the publication of the twin volumes of Democracy in America (1835/1840), Tocqueville emerges from this collection as a vital interlocutor for democratic theorists confronting the power relations generated by intersections of gender, sexual, racial, class, ethnic, national, and colonial identities.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Jocelyn Boryczka, Richard Boyd, Christine Carey, Barbara Cruikshank, Laura Janara, Matthew Holbreich, Kathleen S. Sullivan, Alvin B. Tillery Jr., Lisa Pace Vetter, Dana Villa, Cheryl B. Welch, and Delba Winthrop.<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=hmQHyusqSsYC&lpg=PP1&dq=Feminist%20Tocqueville&pg=PP1&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe>
The volume highlights the expressly normative nature of Tocqueville’s project, thus providing an overdue counterweight to the conventional understanding of Tocquevillean America as an actual place in time and history. By reading Tocqueville alongside the writings of early women’s rights activists, ethnologists, critical race theorists, contemporary feminists, neoconservatives, and his French contemporaries, among others, this book produces a variety of Tocquevilles that unsettles the hegemonic view of his work.
Seen as a philosophical source and a political authority for modern democracies since the publication of the twin volumes of Democracy in America (1835/1840), Tocqueville emerges from this collection as a vital interlocutor for democratic theorists confronting the power relations generated by intersections of gender, sexual, racial, class, ethnic, national, and colonial identities.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Jocelyn Boryczka, Richard Boyd, Christine Carey, Barbara Cruikshank, Laura Janara, Matthew Holbreich, Kathleen S. Sullivan, Alvin B. Tillery Jr., Lisa Pace Vetter, Dana Villa, Cheryl B. Welch, and Delba Winthrop.<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=hmQHyusqSsYC&lpg=PP1&dq=Feminist%20Tocqueville&pg=PP1&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe>
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Paine — like many male radicals of the late Enlightenment — was neither a steady nor consistently direct advocate of the rights of women, particularly women’s equal civil and political rights with men. In this way, he was no different... more
Paine — like many male radicals of the late Enlightenment — was neither a steady nor consistently direct advocate of the rights of women, particularly women’s equal civil and political rights with men. In this way, he was no different from William Godwin in London, Bishop Talleyrand in Paris, or Charles Brockden Brown in America. Early in his career, from Common Sense (1776) to Rights of Man, Part I (1791), Paine was silent on the issue of women’s rights, and sometimes slipped into using derogatory, patriarchal language to describe women’s inequality with men. The shift from the republican-based discourse of Common Sense and the Crisis series (1776-1783) to the rights-based language of Rights of Man, Part I, seems to have pushed Paine toward a deeper philosophical consideration of women’s possession of the same natural rights as men. Much of what Paine argued in the later part of his career, especially in the second part of Rights of Man, Part II (1792) and Agrarian Justice (1797), either explicitly or implicitly endorses women’s equal rights with men, especially welfare rights but also political rights such as suffrage.
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This article examines Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in American newspapers from 1800 to 1869. Wollstonecraft was portrayed to the American public as a philosopher of women’s rights, a new model of femininity, and a pioneer of... more
This article examines Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in American newspapers from 1800 to 1869. Wollstonecraft was portrayed to the American public as a philosopher of women’s rights, a new model of femininity, and a pioneer of women’s political activism. Although these iconic uses of Wollstonecraft were regularly negative, they grew more positive as the women’s rights movement gained steam alongside the abolition movement. This study thus shows the significance of Wollstonecraft in early representations of women’s rights issues and debates in the US, and underscores the role of journalistic media in the spread and growth of feminism.
Research Interests: Iconography, Media Studies, Journalism, Reception Studies, Political Theory, and 15 morePolitical Science, Politics, Early American Republic, Feminism, History of Political Thought, Gender and Politics, Newspaper History, Femininity, Mary Wollstonecraft, Icon, Icons, Newspaper, History Political Thought, ICON, and Histories of Feminisms
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Page 1. PADDY BULLARD Page 2. EDMUND BURKE AND THE ART OF RHETORIC Edmund Burke ranks among the most accomplished orators ever to debate in the British Parliament. But often his eloquence has been seen ...
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Although Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-1829) apparently presented a prescription against women's political oratory in her Observations on the Real Rights of Women (1818), she provided philosophical and historical challenges to this... more
Although Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-1829) apparently presented a prescription against women's political oratory in her Observations on the Real Rights of Women (1818), she provided philosophical and historical challenges to this conventional rule of early nineteenth-century feminine propriety elsewhere in the first American treatise on women's rights. By analyzing new archival findings of two of her oratorical works from the early 1810s — her 1813 "Fast Sermon" against the War of 1812 and her 1814 "Address" to the advisory board of the School of Industry for poor girls in Boston's North End — I argue that Crocker also provided a personal challenge to this conventional rule. In philosophically, historically, and personally redefining women's political oratory as compatible with feminine propriety — during the post-revolutionary backlash against women's rights — Crocker helped pave the way for the strategic use of the constitutional rights of speech and association in the nineteenth-century American women's rights movement and beyond.
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Charles Taylor recently used the term modern social imaginary to describe dominant sets of norms, practices, and expectations—such as the market economy or the public sphere—that are rooted in the philosophies of the European... more
Charles Taylor recently used the term modern social imaginary to describe dominant sets of norms, practices, and expectations—such as the market economy or the public sphere—that are rooted in the philosophies of the European Enlightenment and have since permeated the common experience of life in the contemporary Western world. Building on Taylor’s argument, this article charts how Mary Wollstonecraft became one of the major philosophical sources from the Enlightenment era to shape the emergent modern social imaginary of the egalitarian family that increasingly serves as the background against which debates about the family take place today.
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&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;quot;The publication in 1869 of Mill&amp;amp;#x27;s &amp;amp;#x27;Subjection of Women&amp;amp;#x27; gave rise to philosophical and political responses beyond Western Europe on the relationship... more
&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;quot;The publication in 1869 of Mill&amp;amp;#x27;s &amp;amp;#x27;Subjection of Women&amp;amp;#x27; gave rise to philosophical and political responses beyond Western Europe on the relationship between Westernization and women&amp;amp;#x27;s rights in developing, colonial, and post-colonial countries. Through the first comparative study of the &amp;amp;#x27;Subjection of Women&amp;amp;#x27; alongside the forewords to six of its earliest non-Western European editions, we explore how this book provoked local intellectuals in Russia, Chile, and India to engage its liberal utilitarian, imperial, Orientalist, and feminist ideas. By showing how Mill&amp;amp;#x27;s Western European biases and instrumental reasoning establish problematic rhetorical models for women&amp;amp;#x27;s rights arguments, we are able to explore the ethical dimensions of women&amp;amp;#x27;s rights issues in the context of cultural and political imperialism. Most importantly, this reception history illustrates how cross-cultural and culturally sensitive dialogue on women’s rights can push us beyond Western bias and imperialism in advocating for the end of women&amp;amp;#x27;s subjection around the globe. Keywords: John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women, Non-Western Political Thought, Women&amp;amp;#x27;s Rights, Westernization&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;quot;
Research Interests: Russian Studies, Gender Studies, Philosophy, Feminist Theory, Indian Philosophy, and 15 morePolitical Theory, Political Science, Politics, Colonialism, Global Justice, History of Chile, Empire, History of Colonial India, John Stuart Mill, Orientalism, Imperialism, Westernization, Women and Development, Mill, and Post Colonialism
Through a reflection on Umberto Eco’s medieval manuscript mystery The Name of the Rose, I articulate the value of my historical and literary approach to editing the manuscripts of the American author Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-1829). I... more
Through a reflection on Umberto Eco’s medieval manuscript mystery The Name of the Rose, I articulate the value of my historical and literary approach to editing the manuscripts of the American author Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-1829). I use Eco’s concept of intertextuality to explain how careful attention to the appendix and marginalia of Crocker’s Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston (c. 1829) enabled me to uncover its underlying narrative structure as a work of history. I draw out the implications of this method of documentary editing for feminist and democratic theory, particularly for understanding Crocker’s own significant contributions to both of these schools of American political thought.
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Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-1829) penned her "Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston" during the last decade of her life. By looking at the poetry woven through the manuscript, we see how Crocker creates a narrative thread on... more
Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-1829) penned her "Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston" during the last decade of her life. By looking at the poetry woven through the manuscript, we see how Crocker creates a narrative thread on Boston’s eighteenth-century female political poets: Sarah Kemble Knight, Jane Colman Turell, Sarah Parsons Moorhead, and Phillis Wheatley. By studying her marginalia on her own poems in the appendix to the volume, we learn that Crocker identifies herself as a participant in the eighteenth-century tradition of women engaging men as equals in the public sphere via poetry and wit. Through the first study of Crocker’s poetry published in Boston newspapers between 1784 and 1798, this article challenges the long-held scholarly view of Crocker’s public writing career as only commencing in the 1810s, with her prose essays concerning women’s rights, education, and civic participation. Furthermore, this article shows that Crocker used her "Reminiscences" to develop a feminist theory of the empowerment of women through the witness and practice of political criticism in the public sphere.
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... takes up what she refers to as descriptive arguments, largely drawing upon classical works from WEB DuBois and more contemporary works of Charles Mills and Lucius Outlaw, in order to challenge interventions of authors such as Kwame... more
... takes up what she refers to as descriptive arguments, largely drawing upon classical works from WEB DuBois and more contemporary works of Charles Mills and Lucius Outlaw, in order to challenge interventions of authors such as Kwame Anthony Appiah ... By Daniel W. Bromley ...
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The publication in 1869 of Mill’s Subjection of Women gave rise to philosophical and political responses beyond Western Europe on the relationship between Westernization and women’s rights in developing, colonial, and post-colonial... more
The publication in 1869 of Mill’s Subjection of Women gave rise to philosophical and political responses beyond Western Europe on the relationship between Westernization and women’s rights in developing, colonial, and post-colonial countries. Through the first comparative study of the Subjection of Women alongside the forewords to six of its earliest non–Western European editions, we explore how this book provoked local intellectuals in Russia, Chile, and India to engage its liberal utilitarian, imperial, Orientalist, and feminist ideas. By showing how Mill’s Western European biases and instrumental reasoning establish problematic rhetorical models for women’s rights arguments, we are able to explore the ethical dimensions of women’s rights issues in the context of cultural and political imperialism. Most importantly, this reception history illustrates how cross-cultural and culturally sensitive dialogue on women’s rights can push us beyond Western bias and imperialism in advocating for the end of women’s subjection around the globe.
Research Interests: Sociology, Russian Studies, Gender Studies, Philosophy, Feminist Theory, and 15 moreIndian Philosophy, Political Theory, Political Science, Politics, Colonialism, Global Justice, History of Chile, Empire, History of Colonial India, John Stuart Mill, Orientalism, Imperialism, Westernization, Mill, and Post Colonialism
Summary It has often been repeated that Wollstonecraft was not read for a century after her death in 1797 due to the negative impact of her husband William Godwin's Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798)... more
Summary It has often been repeated that Wollstonecraft was not read for a century after her death in 1797 due to the negative impact of her husband William Godwin's Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798) on her posthumous reputation. By providing the first full-scale reception history of Wollstonecraft in continental Europe in the long nineteenth century—drawing on rare book research, translations of understudied primary sources, and Wollstonecraft scholarship from the nineteenth century to the present—this article applies a revised Rezeptionsgeschichte approach to tracing her intellectual influence on the woman question and organised feminism in Europe. Although the Memoirs and post-revolutionary politics everywhere dampened and even drove underground the reception of her persona and ideas in the first decades of the nineteenth century, Wollstonecraft's reception in nineteenth-century continental Europe, like the United States, was more positive and sustained in comparison to the public backlash she faced as a ‘fallen woman’ in her homeland of Britain through the bulk of the Victorian era.
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Prominent critics and skeptics of genetic engineering have treated the ethical issue of human germline genetic modification (HGGM) as if it were still science fiction, like the artificially made Creature imagined in Mary Shelley’s 1818... more
Prominent critics and skeptics of genetic engineering have treated the ethical issue of human germline genetic modification (HGGM) as if it were still science fiction, like the artificially made Creature imagined in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein. After surveying the history of making genetically modified (GM) children through three-person IVF since the late 1990s, I sketch a framework for a normative political theory of the rights of the GM children made from heritable biotechnological interventions in the human genome. In light of the history and trajectory of HGGM, the preeminent hard question is no longer “Should science genetically engineer children?” An equally difficult question is “What are the rights of the GM child?” The source of all speculative fiction, Frankenstein presciently addresses the latter question by having the Creature articulate a child’s fundamental and universal rights to both parental love and nondiscrimination, regardless of reproductive circumstances or genetic features.
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It has often been repeated that Wollstonecraft was not read for a century after her death in 1797 due to the negative impact of her husband William Godwin’s 'Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1798) on... more
It has often been repeated that Wollstonecraft was not read for a century after her death in 1797 due to the negative impact of her husband William Godwin’s 'Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1798) on her posthumous reputation. By providing the first full-scale reception history of Wollstonecraft in continental Europe in the long nineteenth century — drawing on rare book research, translations of understudied primary sources, and Wollstonecraft scholarship from the nineteenth century to the present — this article applies a revised Rezeptionsgeschichte approach to tracing her intellectual influence on the woman question and organized feminism in Europe. Although the 'Memoirs' and post-revolutionary politics everywhere dampened and even drove underground the reception of her persona and ideas in the first decades of the nineteenth century, Wollstonecraft’s reception in nineteenth-century continental Europe, like the United States, was more positive and sustained in comparison to the public backlash she faced as a 'fallen woman' in her homeland of Britain through the bulk of the Victorian era.
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Most people believe that parents have rights to direct their children's education and upbringing. But why? What grounds those rights? How broad is their scope? Can we defend parental rights against those who believe we need more... more
Most people believe that parents have rights to direct their children's education and upbringing. But why? What grounds those rights? How broad is their scope? Can we defend parental rights against those who believe we need more extensive state educational control to protect children's autonomy or prepare them for citizenship in a diverse society? Amid heated debates over issues like sexual education, diversity education and vouchers, Moschella cuts to the heart of the matter, explaining why education is primarily the responsibility of parents, not the state. Rigorously argued yet broadly accessible, the book offers a principled case for expanding school choice and granting exemptions when educational programs or regulations threaten parents' ability to raise their children in line with their values. Philosophical argument is complemented with psychological and social scientific research showing that robust parental rights' protections are crucial for the well-being ...
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This article challenges the thesis that the publication of William Godwin's scandalous Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1798 minimized the philosophical impact of Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 work the... more
This article challenges the thesis that the publication of William Godwin's scandalous Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1798 minimized the philosophical impact of Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 work the Rights of Woman in nineteenth‐century American political thought. Instead, we demonstrate that leading nineteenth‐century American women's rights advocates—Hannah Mather Crocker, Lucretia Mott, Sarah Grimké, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony—understood themselves to be in a critical, philosophical dialogue with the text of the Rights of Woman, and in some cases, the Memoirs, and defined their own, distinctive philosophies of sex equality partly within this context.
Research Interests: Sociology, Feminist Philosophy, Political Science, Politics, Nineteenth Century United States, and 13 moreWollstonecraft, Nineteenth Century, Frederick Douglass, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah Mather Crocker, Memoir, United States, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Sarah Grimke, Susan B. Anthony, and American Political Science
more, or less, important in conditioning social democratic choices. Among the panoply of elements incorporated under opportunity structure, some are long established in the literature, such as veto points, welfare regime types, and party... more
more, or less, important in conditioning social democratic choices. Among the panoply of elements incorporated under opportunity structure, some are long established in the literature, such as veto points, welfare regime types, and party organization, where the book primarily reiterates existing arguments. Two other elements have major potential for theoretical innovation: party–union ties and party competition, but here the book’s arguments are somewhat partially developed. While it is undoubtedly true that social democrats can be constrained in their actions by strong ties to the unions, the encompassing nature of unions is even more important. When union federations cover a sufficiently broad segment of the labor movement, they internalize much of the cost of unproductive behavior, and hence will rationally refrain from exploiting their leverage over social democratic parties (Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, 1965). The book does mention this logic in passing, and it would have made its case much stronger by offering a deeper theoretical and empirical treatment of this issue. Similarly, as competition in the party system intensifies, parties move away from their core constituency toward the median voter (Ian Budge and Dennis Farlie, “Party Competition: Selective Emphasis or Direct Confrontation?” in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair, eds., Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change, 1983). Therefore, social democrats are expected to have greater leeway for reform in more competitive party systems. The authors could have spelled out this theoretical principle more clearly, and their empirical cases on party competition do not seem to fit this general prediction very well.
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This essay responds to Alasdair MacIntyre’s skeptical claim that human rights are like “witches” and “unicorns”—as in, they don’t exist, and thus cannot be subject to abstract rational justification. Putting aside the issue of the... more
This essay responds to Alasdair MacIntyre’s skeptical claim that human rights are like “witches” and “unicorns”—as in, they don’t exist, and thus cannot be subject to abstract rational justification. Putting aside the issue of the abstract rational justification of human rights, I focus on the more urgent practical question of how human rights might be meaningfully alleged when they do not yet exist within society, culture, law, or policy. Borrowing from MacIntyre’s narrative theory of ethics to undermine his skeptical view of human rights, I contend that human rights—whether understood as moral rights or as political rights—can be coherently alleged through the same kind of narrative framework that MacIntyre argued was essential to any intelligible ethical system of thought. In particular, imaginative narrative frameworks—such as those found in stories and films—have been crucial for the enterprise of demanding human rights for the powerless, especially girls and women. Putting at its center a feminist interpretation of the classic American film, The Wizard of Oz (1939), this article playfully, yet ultimately seriously, challenges MacIntyre’s dismissal of rights as “witches and unicorns” by showing how allegations of women’s human rights derive much of their power for fighting human wrongs from their historically (although not essentially) imaginative character as well as their deeper narrative structure.
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A central figure in Western history and American political thought, Thomas Paine continues to provoke debate among politicians, activists, and scholars. People of all ideological stripes are inspired by his trenchant defense of the rights... more
A central figure in Western history and American political thought, Thomas Paine continues to provoke debate among politicians, activists, and scholars. People of all ideological stripes are inspired by his trenchant defense of the rights and good sense of ordinary individuals, and his penetrating critiques of arbitrary power. This volume contains Paine's explosive Common Sense in its entirety, including the oft-ignored Appendix, as well as selections from his other major writings: The American Crisis, Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason. It also contains several of Paine's shorter essays. All the documents have been transcribed directly from the originals, making this edition the most reliable one available. Essays by Ian Shapiro, Jonathan Clark, Jane Calvert, and Eileen Hunt Botting bring Paine into sharp focus, illuminating his place in the tumultuous decades surrounding the American and French Revolutions and his larger historical legacy.
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This chapter provides the first analysis of Mary Wollstonecraft as a proto-intersectional political philosopher. Wollstonecraft’s major contributions to modern political philosophy stem from her visionary use of the concept of... more
This chapter provides the first analysis of Mary Wollstonecraft as a proto-intersectional political philosopher. Wollstonecraft’s major contributions to modern political philosophy stem from her visionary use of the concept of intersectionality to diagnose the causes, symptoms, and remedies of gender-, race-, and class-based inequality and oppression. Wollstonecraft’s theory of social justice—the most egalitarian of the Enlightenment era—aimed to eliminate such arbitrary inequalities, in part through the legislation and protection of rights for women and other historically oppressed groups. Wollstonecraft should thus be understood as a philosophical forerunner of contemporary third-wave feminists, who use intersectionality as a foundational concept for theorizing social justice.
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ABSTRACT Feminists have long criticized Rousseau for his patriarchal political theory. But when his lesser-known writings on women from the 1740s are taken into account, including a nearly 900-page manuscript critiquing Montesquieu from a... more
ABSTRACT Feminists have long criticized Rousseau for his patriarchal political theory. But when his lesser-known writings on women from the 1740s are taken into account, including a nearly 900-page manuscript critiquing Montesquieu from a feminist perspective, we see how the early Rousseau robustly converged in feminist ideas with his employer Madame Louise Dupin, before he gradually diverged from this egalitarian school of thought over the course of the 1750s. I add to the evidence of the early Rousseau’s egalitarian response to ‘the woman question’ by showing his philosophical convergence with the feminist arguments of the anonymous ‘Critique of the Spirit of the Laws’ (c. 1749) as well as Madame Dupin’s ‘Ouvrage sur les femmes’ (c. 1745–1751) – manuscripts largely in his secretarial hand. Through this triangulation of understudied texts, we find that the early Rousseau was not a patriarchal apologist, but rather a feminist secretary and a secretary to a feminist.
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Prominent critics and skeptics of genetic engineering have treated the ethical issue of human germline genetic modification as if it were still science fiction, like the artificially made Creature imagined in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel... more
Prominent critics and skeptics of genetic engineering have treated the ethical issue of human germline genetic modification as if it were still science fiction, like the artificially made Creature imagined in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein. In light of the two-decade history and fast-paced trajectory of human germline genetic modification, the most pressing bioethical question for political theory is no longer “Should science genetically engineer children?” An equally difficult and less explored question is “What are the rights of the genetically modified child?” The source of all speculative fiction, Frankenstein presciently bears on the latter question by having the Creature articulate a child’s fundamental and universal rights to both parental love and nondiscrimination, regardless of reproductive circumstances or features of genesis.
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A review essay for The TLS
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This is a forthcoming book symposium in the journal Political Theory on Eileen Hunt Botting's book "Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women's Human Rights" with critical essays by Ruth Abbey, Linda Zerilli, Alasdair MacIntyre, and a response by... more
This is a forthcoming book symposium in the journal Political Theory on Eileen Hunt Botting's book "Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women's Human Rights" with critical essays by Ruth Abbey, Linda Zerilli, Alasdair MacIntyre, and a response by the author.
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A historical look at Wollstonecraft's often controversial reception in art since the 1790s to the present debate over the installation of Maggi Hambling's abstract and provocative "Statue for Wollstonecraft" on Newington Green in... more
A historical look at Wollstonecraft's often controversial reception in art since the 1790s to the present debate over the installation of Maggi Hambling's abstract and provocative "Statue for Wollstonecraft" on Newington Green in London.
https://intellectualhistory.net/past-meets-present-list/t9vqdgvr9uwqgavt6hyxo20xk58u57
https://intellectualhistory.net/past-meets-present-list/t9vqdgvr9uwqgavt6hyxo20xk58u57