D'Itri (American thought and language, Michigan State U.) discusses the individuals, organizations, and events that contributed to the development of the world movement for women's rights between 1848, the date of the first Women's Rights Convention in the United States, and 1948, by which time the movement was substantial enough to influence the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. This study traces the movement from its origins in the United States, through its subsequent international development. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Between 1880 and 1920 many women researched the conditions of social and economic life in Western countries. They were driven by a vision of a society based on welfare and altruism, rather than warfare and competition. Ann Oakley, a leading sociologist, undertook extensive research to uncover this previously hidden cast of forgotten characters. She uses the women’s stories to bring together the histories of social reform, social science, welfare and pacifism. Her fascinating account reveals how their efforts, connected through thriving transnational networks, lie behind many features of modern welfare states and reminds us of their powerful vision of a more humane way of living – a vision that remains relevant today.

What characterised women's international co-operation in the interwar period? How did female activists from different countries and continents relate to one another? Marie Sandell here explores the changing experiences of women involved in the major international women's organisations - including the International Council of Women, International Alliance of Women, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and the International Federation of University Women - as well as the changing compositions and aims of the organisations themselves. Moving beyond an Anglo-American focus, Sandell analyses what the term 'international sisterhood' meant in this broader context, which for the first time included women from the beyond the Western world. Focusing on shifting identities, this book investigates how notions of 'sisterhood' were played out, and contested, during the interwar period and will be invaluable reading for scholars of women's history and twentieth-century world history.

The Routledge History of Human Rights is an interdisciplinary collection that provides historical and global perspectives on a range of human rights themes of the past 150 years. The volume is made up of 34 original contributions. It opens with the emergence of a "new internationalism" in the mid-nineteenth century, examines the interwar, League of Nations, and the United Nations eras of human rights and decolonization, and ends with the serious challenges for rights norms, laws, institutions, and multilateral cooperation in the national security world after 9/11. These essays provide a big picture of the strategic, political, and changing nature of human rights work in the past and into the present day, and reveal the contingent nature of historical developments. Highlighting local, national, and non-Western voices and struggles, the volume contributes to overcoming Eurocentric biases that burden human rights histories and studies of international law. It analyzes regions and organizations that are often overlooked. The volume thus offers readers a new and broader perspective on the subject. International in coverage and containing cutting-edge interpretations, the volume provides an overview of major themes and suggestions for future research. This is the perfect book for those interested in social justice, grass roots activism, and international politics and society.

Emily Rosenberg examines the social and cultural networks that emerged from global exchanges between 1870 and 1945. Transnational connections were being formed many decades before "globalization" became a commonplace term in economic and political discourse, and these currents underscore the fluidity of spatial and personal identifications.

"'Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace' explores the social and political activism of American Jewish women from approximately 1890 through World War II. Written in an engaging style, the book demonstrates that no history of the suffrage, birth control, or peace movements in the United States is complete without analyzing the impact of Jewish women's presence. The volume is based on years of extensive primary-source research in more than a dozen archives and hundreds of published primary sources, many of which have previously never been seen. Voluminous personal papers and institutional records paint a vivid picture of a world in which both middle-class and working-class American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all the major issues of their day and worked closely with their non-Jewish counterparts on behalf of activist causes"--Page 4 of cover.

Making Waves unearths the successive, worldwide waves of revolts, rebellions, and revolutions that have shaken and remade the world from the eighteenth century to the present. It challenges us to rethink not only our limited conceptions of social movements but the very character and possibilities of social movements. The authors show how successive outbursts of global social protest have undermined world capitalist orders and, through both their successes and their failures, provided the basis for long periods of stable capitalist rule across all the zones of the world-economy. The surprises start in the Age of Revolution, when the antisystemic wave of slave revolts that led to the Haitian Revolution is related to the systemic effects of their combination with the U.S. and French Revolutions. The analysis comes up to the present, when a wave of post-1989 movements points to quite divergent futures based, as in the past, on the search for alternatives to communities organized by capital accumulation, nation-states, and the accelerating commodification and fragmentation of human needs, identities, and desires.

With its focus on narratives, its attention to contextual and material realities, and its collection of women-identified liturgies in global context, Dissident Daughters claims prominence within the growing literature on women's ways of worship. This book not only introduces liturgical texts, but focuses on the communities that create and celebrate these liturgies. Dissident Daughters gives voice to the women activists in these communities who show how their communities came into being; how social, cultural, and political realities shaped them and their liturgies; and how they envision their lives in and as communities of faith. In drawing the different narratives together, Dissident Daughters displays the expanse of the worldwide expression of women's rites, and how each is shaped by distinctly different contexts of struggle and hope.

Women and Leadership, edited by George R. Goethals and Crystal L. Hoyt of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, is a compact collection of thoughtful essays by experts on leadership theory as well as women’s history. Women and Leadership has been designed to help students and citizens who want a more nuanced explanation of what we know about women as leaders, and about how they have led in different fields, in different parts of the world, and in past centuries. It includes twenty biographies of women leaders in many different domains—not only politics but also education, fashion, sports, and social and environmental movements.

The “fascinating, forgotten story” of a daughter of a renowned American family—a suffragette and spiritualist who shocked New England society (Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher). Older sister Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Brother Henry Ward Beecher was one of the nation’s most influential ministers. Their sibling Catharine Beecher wrote pivotal works on women’s rights and educational reform. And then there was Isabella Beecher Hooker— “a curiously modern nineteenth-century figure.” Tempest-Tossed is the first full biography of the passionate, fascinating youngest daughter of the “Fabulous Beechers” —one of America’s most high-powered families of the time. She was a leader in the suffrage movement, and a mover and shaker in Hartford, Connecticut’s storied Nook Farm neighborhood and salon. But there is more to the story—to Isabella’s character—than that. An ardent spiritualist, Isabella could be off-putting, perplexing, tenacious, or charming in daily life. Many found her daunting to get to know and stay on comfortable terms with. Her “wild streak” was especially unfavorable in the eyes of Hartford society at the time, which valued restraint and duty. In this book, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Susan Campbell brings her own unique blend of empathy and unbridled humor to the story of Harriet’s younger half-sister and her evolution from orthodox Calvinist daughter, wife, and mother to one of the most influential players in the suffrage movement, where this unforgettable woman finally gets her proper due.