This is the first full-length biography of Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), Anglo-Irish reformer, feminist, and anti-vivisectionist Lori Williamson builds on original research, Cobbe's autobiography, and the work of later historians to analyze Cobbe's life as well as her ideological outlook.

A workhouse visitor, Cobbe campaigned strenuously against those in power for rights of women, the poor and of animals. A prominent critic of the Poor Law, she was also the first person to draw up a petition to control cruelty to animals. Using Cobbe's thoughts and activities as a catalyst, Power and Protest explores the issues of protest, reform, hierarchy, power, and gender, the relationship between men and women, humans and animals, and includes important work on pressure-group dynamics.

Given its wide-ranging scope, depiction of nineteenth-century British society and culture, and its exploration of the symbiotic relationships between ideology and the dynamics of protest, Power and Protest will attract students of history, social policy, and gender. Its emphasis on anti-vivisection activity provides a powerful basis for understanding power relations and the historical concept of rights.