Woman Thinking: Feminism and Transcendentalism in Nineteenth-Century America

Woman Thinking explores the theoretical relationship between feminism and Transcendentalism through the ideas and activism of prominent nineteenth-century female thinkers and activists. By analyzing the work of important figures in post-Civil War American intellectual life, such as Ednah Chency. Caroline Dall. Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth Oakes Smith. Tiffany K. Wayne demonstrates how Transcendentalism provided a language with particular appeal to women and helped promote an emerging feminist movement with the goal of acknowledging women's right to self-development. Bridging the gap between the traditionally disparate fields of women's history and American intellectual history, this book is as much a revision of Transcendentalism-arguing for recognition of the movement's more widespread and long-lasting influence in American cultural life-as it is a project in historicizing feminist theory. Book jacket.