Book Reviews : Linda K. Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1980, Pp. 304. $19.50 (cloth), $9.00 (paper)
Abstract
Book ReviewsLinda K. Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1980, Pp. 304. $19.50 (cloth), $9.00 (paper) SAGE Publications, Inc.1982DOI: 10.1177/002071528202300313 Marian J. Morton John Carroll University University Heights, U.S.A. In her Preface, Kerber defines women's history as "...a subject to be studied for its own intrinsic interest, and... a strategy by which we can test long-accepted generalizations about the past. " By these criteria, her book is an unqualified success. Kerber's thesis is that during the years of the Revolution, American women developed for themselves an ideology which allowed them tentative, partial, but unprecedented access to politics. She calls this ideology "Republican Motherhood" because it rested women's claims to political education and responsibility on their roles as mothers of the sons and wives of the husbands who actually made the political decisions. Since this set of ideas did not challenge existing political or domestic institutions, it seems modest enough unless one considers, as Kerber does, the formidable obstacles to even this small advance. The British political thinkers upon whom the Revolutionary leaders relied did not attribute to women any political functions at all, and the British