The Origins of Women's Activism: New York and Boston, 1797-1840

Tracing the deep roots of women’s activism in America, Anne Boylan explores the flourishing of women’s volunteer associations in the decades following the Revolution. She examines the entire spectrum of early nineteenth-century women’s groups — Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish; African American and white; middle and working class — to illuminate the ways in which race, religion, and class could bring women together in pursuit of common goals or drive them apart.

Boylan interweaves analyses o...