A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Abridged, with Related Texts

Description

Mary Wollstonecraft is an iconic writer for feminism and modern culture. Her best-known work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), forcefully argues for women's cultural and political equality using the language and concepts of the revolutionary age, and review earlier Enlightenment arguments for political and social change. Over two hundred years later, Wollstonecraft's arguments can still provoke debate as they address issues of sex-gender inequality that are still with us, although in new and ever-changing forms. This abridged edition is intended to help readers more easily understand the arguments and essential contexts of this vital book.

Philip Barnard is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Kansas. Stephen Shapiro is Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.

"A thoughtful and useful abridgment of an essential historical, political, and philosophical text. [Barnard and Shapiro] have managed to preserve the tone and arguments of the original while shedding much of the redundancy and lengthy quotations of external sources that can be off-putting and cumbersome for today's readers." Katrin Schultheiss, George Washington University "A very judicious selection from the Vindication. The related texts do a great job of setting Wollstonecraft's arguments within contemporary debates about women's education and, more broadly, eighteenth-century political philosophy. The editorial apparatus is also thorough and usefulespecially the notes, which are outstanding. "In short, the editors have created a fresh and stimulating new edition of Wollstonecrafts Vindication that will be infinitely useful in the classroom." Sarah Gwyneth Ross, Boston College