Because women have always played roles crucial to the functioning of the American political system, their formal entry into electoral politics is far less unprecedented than usually thought. That underlying theme informs the findings of the six studies in this intriguing volume, which reintegrates women into nineteenth-century political theory, highlighting their participation in political life and discourse and in the negotiation of power.
In her introduction, Sarah Barringer Gordon articulates the central theme of the book: that political instability in the lives of women in the...

Although Americans have traditionally treated race relations as a matter of black and white, race in this country is much more complex. "Beyond Black and White: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the U.S. South and Southwest" brings new perspectives to the oversimplification of racial categories and new insight into the complexity of social relationships in these two important regions. Although the topics covered range from law in the South in the nineteenth century to political activism by Mexican Americans in the twentieth century, they begin with a common viewpoint: If we are to understand the...