Reviewed by Rosemarie Zagarri | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 60.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the WMQ online. About 280 words from this article are provided below; about 962 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to the William and Mary Quarterly, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the William and Mary Quarterly, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the William and Mary Quarterly (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the William and Mary Quarterly.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Reviewed by Rosemarie Zagarri | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 60.4 | The History Cooperative

Reviews of Books

Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 1650–1800. By RUTH H. BLOCH. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Pp. x, 225. $ 55.00 cloth, $21.95 paper.)

Reviewed by Rosemarie Zagarri , George Mason University

Drawing together previously published as well as unpublished essays written between 1978 and 2001, Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture represents, in Ruth Bloch's own words, much of her "creative career as a woman's historian" (p. ix). Bloch began her investigations before Nancy F. Cott, Linda K. Kerber, Mary Beth Norton, and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich had published their path-breaking books on early American women's history. ¹ Along with these studies, Bloch's work contributed in no small part to transforming the field into a vital area of study.

The volume is divided into three sections: "Overviews" offers an ambitious historical and theoretical analysis of women's history; "Colonial Transitions" examines legal, religious, and philosophical changes in attitudes toward women during the eighteenth century; and "Revolutionary Syntheses" focuses on the impact of the American Revolution on the reconceptualization of women's role. In "A Culturalist Critique of Trends in Feminist Theory," Bloch outlines the methodology that provides the theoretical framework for much of her work. Rejecting prevailing Marxist and postmodern theories of gender, she posits an alternative "nonreductive theory of culture" that allows us to analyze relations between the sexes on their own terms. Gender relations must be seen as a "cultural representation of human interdependency and relationality" (p. 26) rather than as a reflex of material factors, brute force, or biological essentialism. Otherwise, she says, we end up reproducing the very structures of domination that feminists seek to challenge.

. . .

There are about 962 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.