ABSTRACT
74. Anderson, Bonnie S., and Judith P. Zinsser. A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present. 2 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Vol. 1, xxiii, 591 pp. ISBN 0-06-015850-6, cloth; 0-06-091452-1, paper. Vol. 2, xix, 572 pp. ISBN 0-06-015899-9, cloth; 0-06-091563-3, paper. These volumes are a reimagination of a Western Civilization textbook from the perspective of women. The authors consider not just the nobility, famous leaders, and poets, but also peasant women in medieval fields, wives of Dutch merchants, courtesans of Venice, workers in nineteenth-century factories, and the like. Calling on sociological studies, Anderson and Zinsser declare that "gender has been the most important factor in shaping the lives of European Women" (xv). The authors, having rethought historical progressions, use topics rather than strict chronology to organize this study, starting with the provision of basic necessities (food and shelter) and moving to a feminist vision of the future. The first section, "Traditions Inherited," uses archeological and historical evidence to investigate social developments, a few of which empowered women and many that subordinated them. The next section, "Women of the Fields," discusses the most basic human needs, food and shelter, for the majority of people in Europe's peasant society. Following this topic into the twentieth century allows the authors to consider aspects of life for ordinary people, marrying, raising families, seeking extra income, and the like, and for extraordinary people, from Joan of Arc to witches. The third major section, "Women of the Churches," covering the 22tenth to the seventeenth centuries, speaks of the women who gained power within religious institutions, those who challenged them (heretics), and those who found new ways to fulfill duties by serving the sick and the poor. "Women of the Castles and Manors" tells how the lives of women changed, from being the wives of warriors to the later, sometimes easy and too often very risky, lives of daughters, wives, and widows of nobility. In "Women of the Walled Towns" Anderson and Zinsser show how women helped support their families, contributing to nascent capitalism. In the second volume the authors discuss the lives of "Women of the Courts," not only rulers and nobility, but maidservants as well. Courts also allowed the class of performers, composers, and artists to emerge. A seeming revival of humanism and a flowering of science were too weak to overturn ancient misogyny. In the seventh section, "Women of the Salons and Parlors," the authors consider the roles women filled in their homes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the eighth section, "Women of the Cities," Anderson and Zinsser examine modern women's societal roles, from family formation to care of the elderly. They also follow changes derived from higher living standards since 1800, and the impact of world wars. In the last section, "Traditions Rejected," the authors trace feminism, from its basic assertion of women's full humanity, to claims of equal rights, then equal opportunities, to control their own bodies. At the end of this study the authors describe women's attempts to redefine society itself. These volumes are revolutionary in their focus and their organization, and are vitally challenging in the story they tell. FP
