Between 1877 and 1930 — years rife with tensions over citizenship, suffrage, immigration, and “the Negro problem” — African American activists promoted an array of strategies for progress and power built around “racial destiny,” the idea that black Americans formed a collective whose future existence would be determined by the actions of its members. In Righteous Propagation, Michele Mitchell examines the reproductive implications of racial destiny, demonstrating how it forcefully...

The history of heterosexuality in North America across four centuriesHeterosexuality is usually regarded as something inherently "natural"—but what is heterosexuality, and how has it taken shape across the centuries? By challenging ahistorical approaches to the heterosexual subject, Heterosexual Histories constructs a new framework for the history of heterosexuality, examining unexplored assumptions and insisting that not only sex but race, class,...

Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges presents a collection of original readings that address gendered dimensions of empire from a wide range of geographical and temporal settings.Draws on original research on gender and empire in relation to labour, commodities, fashion, politics, mobility, and visualityIncludes coverage of gender issues from countries in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia between the eighteenth to twentieth centuriesHighl...

A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain't I a Woman has become a must-read for all those interested in the nature of black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the black woman's involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions. The result is nothing short of groundbreaking, giving this book a critical place on every fem...

**A New York Times BestsellerA dynamic and strikingly relevant look at a feminist canon as expansive rather than definitiveA Penguin Classic**One of Library Journal's Best Books of the YearFor Roxane Gay, a feminist canon is subjective and always evolving. A feminist canon represents a long history of feminist scholarship, embraces skepticism, and invites robust discussion and debate. Selected writings by ancient, historic,...

Learn about key ideas, organizations and events that defined the movement in The Feminism Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Feminism in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Feminism Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-...

As Lillian Faderman writes, there are "no constants with regard to lesbianism," except that lesbians prefer women. In this groundbreaking book, she reclaims the history of lesbian life in twentieth-century America, tracing the evolution of lesbian identity and subcultures from early networks to more recent diverse lifestyles. She draws from journals, unpublished manuscripts, songs, media accounts, novels, medical literature, pop culture artifacts, and oral histories by lesbians of all ages...

In these essays, brought together by the scholar Wahneema Lubiano, some of today's most respected intellectuals share their ideas on race, power, gender, and society.The authors, including Cornel West, Angela Y. Davis, and Toni Morrison, argue that we have reached a crisis of democracy represented by an ominous shift toward a renewed white nationalism in which racism is operating in coded, quasi-respectable new forms.

Repeatedly declared dead by the media, the women’s movement has never been as vibrant as it is today. Indeed as Stanford professor and award-winning author Estelle B. Freedman argues in her compelling new book, feminism has reached a critical momentum from which there is no turning back. A truly global movement, as vital and dynamic in the developing world as it is in the West, feminism has helped women achieve authority in politics, sports, and business, and has mobilized public concern f...

"Fascinating . . . chart[s] a gradual but decisive shift in the way Americans have understood sex and its meaning in their lives." — New York Times Book ReviewThe first full length study of the history of sexuality in America , Intimate Matters offers trenchant insights into the sexual behavior of Americans, from colonial times to today. D'Emilio and Freedman give us a deeper understanding of how sexuality has dramatically influenced politics and c...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PLUTARCH AWARD FOR BEST BIOGRAPHYWINNER OF THE ASJA AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY/HISTORYA riveting history about the little-known rivalry between Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett that profoundly shaped the fight for reproductive rights in America.In the 1910s, as the American birth control movement was born, two leaders emerged: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett. While Sanger would go on to found Planned Parenthood, Dennett’s name has largely fad...

**The first-ever Black history to center queer voices, this landmark study traces the lives of LGBTQ+ Black Americans from slavery to present dayGender and sexual expression have always been part of the Black freedom struggle**In this latest book in Beacon’s award-winning ReVisioning History series, Professors C. Riley Snorton and Darius Bost unearth the often overlooked history of the Black queer community in the United States.Arguing that both gender and ...