Taking its starting point from women's contributions to the French
revolution, this important anthology goes far beyond any particular
historical, European or American context and expands its scope in
space and time to an all-inclusive global theme, namely the
contributions of radical women towards an ever-changing world and
its revolutionary transformations everywhere. The superbly edited
essays by diverse contributors from various continents and
disciplines explore a wide platform of women's revolutionary
involvements and elucidate the broad range of contributions by
women scholars, scientists and activists to movements of social
transformation, as well as to a reexamination of established
methods of cultural analysis from enlightened liberalism to
Marxism. The contributions of women scholars and activists from
Africa, Asia and Latin America are particularly significant in that
they transcend and expand European/North American feminism as
relevant primarily to its own socio-cultural context and focus on
women acting in terms of their own non-Western traditions and
cultures, that is, on non-Western models based on indigenous
strategies of social transformation. This rich anthology shuns any
postulation of a single global model for revolution. Yet, despite
the emergence of a problematic relationship between Western or
Western educated theorists and the causes of the oppressed',
women's diverse social, cultural and historical experiences and
strategies are united in this edition, as in their common causes,
as emphasized by the following statement in the introduction: the
female body has become ... a privileged site for social analysis in
the context of international capitalism as well as in the critique
of traditional socialism.' Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, Ogbuide Films Women
and Revolution covers an enormous socio-historical space, four
continents - Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America &endash;
and quite a few countries within them. This huge field of human
experience is looked at from the focal point which runs explicitly
and implicitly through all nineteen chapters: the active if not
revolutionary role women have played individually and collectively
in various determining social situations, a role regularly
suppressed by the coercive power of institutionalized domination.
The impetus for this endeavor was the commemoration of the
bicentennial of the French Revolution, an occasion to take an
in-depth look at its less obvious agendas, through a focus on the
activity of women, and on Olympe de Gouges in particular. But as
Olympe de Gouges became acquainted with Mr. Guillotine, the
considerable role of women became suppressed not only actually but
as a kind of damnatio memoriae which the old Romans had already
invented. As this work shows, there have been multiple forms and
contents through which women have taken history into their own
hands and have participated in emancipatory struggles throughout
the world. They are at their best in their use of the resources of
local village traditions, of dense social contexts, of mutual aid
and in turning such grassroots resources into radical democratic
struggles for the future. A fascinating and timely book .
Wolf-Dieter Narr, Freie Universitat Berlin The vital role played by
women in struggles for social transformation has scarcely been
appreciated, and with the sense of defeat that hangs over the
revolutionary project, stands to be further forgotten. That is why
the publication of Women and Revolution is both welcome and
necessary &endash; on intellectual and scholarly grounds, but
also because these are stories which have to be told if we are to
resume the march toward a better world. Joel Kovel, Bard College
General
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