History of Women in the West, Volume I: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints

by Pauline Schmitt Pantel, Arthur Goldhammer, Georges Duby, Michelle Perrot

Overview

Informed by the work of seventy-five distinguished historians, this five-volume series sets before us an engaging, panoramic chronicle that extends from antiquity to the present day.

The inaugural volume brings women from the margins of ancient history into the fore. It offers fresh insight into more than twenty centuries of Greek and Roman history and encompasses a landscape that stretches from the North Sea to the Mediterranean and from the Pillars of Hercules to the banks of the Indus. The authors draw upon a wide range of sources including gravestones, floor plans, papyrus rolls, vase paintings, and literary works to illustrate how representations of women evolved during this age. They journey into the minds of men and bring to light an imaginative history of women and of the relations between the sexes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674403697
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/15/1994
Series:	History of Women in the West Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	600
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Georges Duby, a member of the Académie Française, is Professor of Medieval History at the Collège de France.

Michelle Perrot is Professor of Contemporary History at the Université de Paris VII.

Table of Contents

A New Kind of History
Natalie Zemon Davis and Joan Wallach Scott

Writing the History of Women
Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot

Representations of Women
Pauline Schmitt Pantel

1. Feminine Models of the Ancient World

1. What is a Goddess?
Nicole Loraux

2. The Sexual Philosophies of Plato and Aristotle
Giulia Sissa

3. The Division of the Sexes in Roman Law
Yan Thomas

4. Figures of Women
François Lissarrague

2. Traditional Rituals Women Share

5. Marriage in Ancient Greece
Claudine Leduc

6. Body Politics in Ancient Rome
Aline Rousselle

7. Pandora's Daughters and Rituals in Grecian Cities
Louise Bruit Zaidman

8. The Religious Roles of Roman Women
John Scheid

9. Early Christian Women
Monique Alexandre

3. Yesterday and Today

10. Creating a Myth of Matriarchy
Stella Georgoudi

11. Women and Ancient History Today
Pauline Schmitt Pantel

The Woman's Voice

Notes

Bibliography

Contributors

Illustration Credits

Index

Editorial Reviews

[This volume contains] a wealth of knowledge and a scholarly scrupulosity which bodes well for its successors.

Times Higher Education Supplement - Helen Hackett

A series of carefully interrelated essays that form the first volume of a five-part encyclopedic history of women… [This work] marks the rapid development over the past twenty years in the study of women in the ancient world.

Times Literary Supplement - Mary Beard

A stellar cast of historians from many countries here examines women’s bodies, hearts, and minds and explores their nature and role… Their investigation pinpoints the changes that have taken place in a colonized continent… The road to freedom is long. We look forward to visiting subsequent stations along the way.

L’Express - Anne Pons

A bold new enterprise that will no doubt stand as a milestone in European history.

Le Nouvel Observateur - Laurent Theis

A stellar cast of historians from many countries here examines women's bodies, hearts, and minds and explores their nature and role...Their investigation pinpoints the changes that have taken place in a colonized continent...The road to freedom is long. We look forward to visiting subsequent stations along the way.

L'Express - Anne Pons

A bold new enterprise that will no doubt stand as a milestone in European history.
— Laurent Theis

Le Nouvel Observateur

A stellar cast of historians from many countries here examines women's bodies, hearts, and minds and explores their nature and role...Their investigation pinpoints the changes that have taken place in a colonized continent...The road to freedom is long. We look forward to visiting subsequent stations along the way.
— Anne Pons

L'Express

A series of carefully interrelated essays that form the first volume of a five-part encyclopedic history of women...[This work] marks the rapid development over the past twenty years in the study of women in the ancient world.
— Mary Beard

Times Literary Supplement

[This book contains] a wealth of knowledge and a scholarly scrupulosity which bodes well for its successors.
— Helen Hackett

Times Higher Education Supplement

A welcome new installment of the acclaimed series (Vol. 4: American Feminism from Revolution to World War , LJ 9/15/93), Volume 5 surveys Western women's history through the 1980s. Again, the focus is not strictly chronological; the work examines the social factors of the 20th century in the context of traditional women's issues. The consequences of Freud and Marx; two world wars; nationalism and fascism; reproductive legislation; the bioethical rights of family members; and the feminist movement have created a century of drastic and not always beneficial change. Conspicuously absent are significant treatments of the contributions of American women to 20th-century feminism, though they are acknowledged in the introduction. That criticism aside, this volume and the entire set are essential for all but the smallest libraries. The contributors and editors deserve accolades.-- Jenny Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio

Library Journal

The goal is more a history of relations between the sexes rather than a history of women. Translated from the Italian Storia delle Donne in Occidente, v.1: L'Antichita (Gius. Laterza & Figli Spa, Roma- Bari, 1990), this is the first volume of a five-volume work. The western European experience is the primary focus, with some attention given to North America. Many different and contradictory points of view are expressed; as the brief introduction to the English edition points out, the essays have a somewhat different slant from what might have been produced had an Anglo-American team organized the project. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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