Women, War, and Revolution

The book is a collection of eleven essays. It encompasses wars and revolutionary movements ranging from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, including America, western and eastern Europe. China and Cuba. Three essays deal with the French Revolution and three focus on women in America. Articles on Russian and Chinese communist feminism are included, as well as material on women in revolutionary Cuba and Italy. What makes the book especially significant is that it raises questions of change and continuity as they affect women in times of political crisis. The volume is loosely organized into three sections. The first section deals with the theme of women's emerging political consciousness and increased visibility during revolutionary movements and wars and with the rising expectations that ensue among them. The second section deals with the impact of rising expectations and with the resulting tension in postrevolutionary societies between patriarchal and egalitarian values. Finally, the third section discusses the development in very different historical contexts of one particularly interesting mechanism for resolving the tension: the ideal of civic motherhood. [modified from editors]