Why History Matters: Life and Thought - Couverture rigide

Lerner, Gerda

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0195046447 ISBN 13 : 9780195046441

Editeur : Oxford University Press, 1997

Synopsis

The author of this work believes all humans are historians: "We live our lives; we tell our stories. It is as natural as breathing". She argues that this is how we define ourselves and our community, how we understand our time and place and the context of our lives. History can be the vital thread that holds a nation together, as demonstrated most strikingly with the Jewish people. Conversely, for women, who have lived in a world in which they apparently had no history, its absence can be devastating. In this work, Lerner brings together her thinking and research of 16 years, combining personal reminiscences with innovative theory illuminating the importance of history and the vital role women have played in it. The chapters are divided into three sections, each widely different from the others, each revelatory of Lerner as a woman and a feminist. This book is intended for students and scholars of women's history.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

"All human beings are practicing historians," writes Gerda Lerner. "We live our lives; we tell our stories. It is as natural as breathing." It is as important as breathing, too. History shapes our self-definition and our relationship to community; it locates us in time and place and helps to give meaning to our lives. History can be the vital thread that holds a nation together, as demonstrated most strikingly in the case of Jewish history. Conversely, for women, who have lived in a world in which they apparently had no history, its absence can be devastating. In Why History Matters, Lerner brings together her thinking and research of the last sixteen years, combining personal reminiscences with innovative theory that illuminate the importance of history and the vital role women have played in it. Why History Matters contains some of the most significant thinking and writing on history that Lerner has done in her entire career--a summation of her life and work. The chapters are divided into three sections, each widely different from the others, each revelatory of Lerner as a woman and a feminist. We read first of Lerner's coming to consciousness as a Jewish woman. There are moving accounts of her early life as a refugee in America, her return to Austria fifty years after fleeing the Nazis (to discover a nation remarkable both for the absence of Jews and for the anti-Semitism just below the surface), her slow assimilation into American life, and her decision to be a historian. If the first section is personal, the second focuses on more professional concerns. Included here is a fascinating essay on nonviolent resistance, tracing the idea from the Quakers (such as Mary Dyer), to abolitionists such as Theodore Dwight Weld (the "most mobbed man" in America), to Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience, then across the sea to Tolstoy and Gandhi, before finally returning to America during the civil rights movement of the 1950s. There are insightful essays on "American Values" and on the tremendous advances women have made in the twentieth century, as well as Lerner's presidential address to the Organization of American Historians, which outlines the contributions of women to the field of history and the growing importance of women as a subject of history. The highlight of the final section of the book is Lerner's bold and innovative look at the issues of class and race as they relate to women, an essay that distills her thinking on these difficult subjects and offers a coherent conceptual framework that will prove of lasting interest to historians and intellectuals. A major figure in women's studies and long-term activist for women's issues, a founding member of NOW and a past president of the Organization of American Historians, Gerda Lerner is a pioneer in the field of Women's History and one of its leading practitioners. Why History Matters is the summation of the work and thinking of this distinguished historian.

Biographie de l'auteur

Gerda Lerner is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her two volume magnum opus, The Creation of Patriarchy and The Creation of Feminist Consciousness, garnered widespread critical acclaim.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press
• Date d'édition: 1997
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0195046447
• ISBN 13: 9780195046441
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 266
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8; Assago Milano; 20090; Italie