Leslie Butler returns readers to a nineteenth century in which disputes over what it meant to make democracy consistent took nothing for granted, showing us how questions about women raised questions about self-government itself. Drawing on a wide range of sources and sparkling with insights, this timely book is a must-read for historians of democracy as idea and practice, as well as for anyone concerned about the fate of government that is of, for, and by all of the people.
Leslie Butler is Associate Professor of History at Dartmouth College and the author of Critical Americans: Victorian Intellectuals and Transatlantic Liberal Reform.
