The first major work on noblewomen in the twelfth century and Normandy, and of the ways in which they exercised power. Offers an important reconceptualisation of women's role in aristocratic society and suggests new ways of looking at lordship and the ruling elite in the high middle ages. Considers a wide range of literary sources such as chronicles, charters, seals and governmental records to draw out a detailed picture of noblewomen in the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm. Asserts the importance of the life-cycle in determining the power of aristocratic women. Demonstrates that the...

Politics and war are crucial to the history of masculinity, yet have been neglected in the emergent historiography of masculinity. This book opens up new avenues in gender history by mapping masculinity's part in making revolution, waging war, building nations, and constructing welfare states. Preceded by extensive historical and theoretical introductions, the volume is clearly divided into sections on revolution, nation, politics and subjectivity. An innovative collection with contributions from an international group of eminent historians who are recognised experts in their fields, with...

Shetland has a history unique in Europe, for over the past two centuries it was a place where women dominated the family, economy, and the cultural imagination. Women ran households and crofts without men. They maintained families and communities because men were absent. And they constructed in their minds an identity of themselves as 'liberated' long before organised feminism was invented. And yet, Shetland is a place which was made by the most masculine of societies - those of the Picts, Scots and above all the Vikings - and its contemporary identity still draws on the heroic exploits and...

This is the first account in English of the entire, 40-year military career of one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages. Challenging the boundaries between military and gender history, it explains how one famous noblewoman rose to the defence of the reforming papacy, defeated the Holy Roman Emperor and turned the tide of the first great war between Church and State.
The military leadership of Matilda of Canossa adopts an interdisciplinary perspective towards the abundant and diverse sources for her life, reading the narrative sources against the letters, polemics, diplomas and...

A study of cohabitation in nineteenth-century England. It analyses marriage, the Victorian legal system, relations with kin and the reactions of the wider communities to extra-legal partnerships. It is suitable for those interested in gender and social his

This book explores the life of Madeleine Smith, who in 1857 was tried for poisoning her secret lover. As well as charting the course of this illicit relationship and Madeleine's subsequent trial, the authors draw on a wide range of sources to pursue themes such as the nature of gender relations and the extent of women's social and commercial activities, and to bring vividly to life the world of the mid-Victorian middle class.The book contains new discoveries about Madeleine's long and colourful life after the trial which confirm the view that it is only in fiction that the bad end unhappily....

This book explores the life of Madeleine Smith, who in 1857 was tried for poisoning her secret lover. As well as charting the course of this illicit relationship and Madeleine's subsequent trial, the authors draw on a wide range of sources to pursue themes such as the nature of gender relations and the extent of women's social and commercial activities, and to bring vividly to life the world of the mid-Victorian middle class.The book contains new discoveries about Madeleine's long and colourful life after the trial which confirm the view that it is only in fiction that the bad end unhappily....

Newly available in paperback, this book examines representations and experiences of men and women who never married between 1914 and 1960, drawing upon an exceptionally wide range of sources including biographies, oral histories, novels, films, government statistics and social surveys. The book discusses the significance of age, generation and gender in work and non-familial lifestyles, and unmarried men and women's intimate, sexual, familial and professional relationships. Important questions are raised as to how these categories have been defined, and power relations between married and...

This book explores the housing problem throughout the 70 years of Soviet history, looking at changing political ideology on appropriate forms of housing under socialism, successive government policies on housing, and the meaning and experience of "home" for Soviet citizens. She examines the use of housing to alter gender relations, and the ways in which domestic space was differentially experienced by men and women. Much of Attwood's material comes from Soviet magazines and journals, which enables her to demonstrate how official ideas on housing and daily life changed during the course of the...

At a time when women were barred from clerical roles, middle-class women made use of the informal power structures of Victorian and Edwardian associationalism in order to actively participate as citizens. This investigation of women's part in civic life provides a fresh approach to the "public sphere," illuminates women as agents of a middle-class identity and develops the notion of a "feminine public sphere," or the web of associations, institutions and discourses used by disenfranchised middle-class women to express their citizenship. The extent of middle-class women's contribution to civic...