Gender and Politics in the Age of Letter-Writing, 1750–2000

Letter writers have frequently articulated both the personal politics of the daily routine and the political views of individuals who witness or participate in dramatic events. In addition, letters can be an unusually revealing record of the relations between men and women. The three-dimensional relationship of politics, gender, and letters for the first time receives sustained attention in this volume, in which the gendered nature of political literacy is revealed over a 250-year period. Ranging wide in terms of subject matter and geography, the contributors examine correspondence from the famous and the unknown, the political prisoner and the political militant, while the writers are shown pondering familial concerns and providing political commentary on the effects of war or revolution on everyday life. Among the impressive group of international scholars are Jim Allen, Clare Brant, Edith Gelles, Jane Rendall, and Siân Reynolds.