HIST 152 Prof. Tai: Books

This book questions the conventional wisdom of the Mediterranean Muslim woman as a passive victim of the tyranny of religion, society, and male relatives. These original essays build on a range of experiences from varied regions and periods--from medieval love poetry to popular literary sources and fatwas and legal analyses--bear witness to the fact that individual women of all social classes play pivotal roles in both the private and public realms of Arab society.

Women often appear invisible in what is widely perceived as the male-oriented society of Islam. Women in the Medieval Islamic World seeks to redress the balance with a series of original essays on women in the pre-modern phase of Islamic history. The reader will encounter here a colorful portrait gallery of rulers, politicians, poets and patrons, as well as some larger than life fictitious females from the pages of Arabic, Persian and Turkish literature.

The relatively egalitarian nature of male-female relations in Southeast Asia is central to arguments claiming a coherent identity for the region. This challenging work by senior scholar Barbara Watson Andaya considers such contradictions while offering a thought-provoking view of Southeast Asian history that focuses on women's roles and perceptions. Andaya explores the broad themes of the early modern era (1500-1800) - the introduction of new religions, major economic shifts, changing patterns of state control, the impact of elite lifestyles and behaviors - drawing on an extraordinary range of sources and citing numerous examples from Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Philippine, and Malay societies.

Bringing together the work of distinguished China historians, anthropologists, and literary and film scholars, Gender in Motion raises provocative questions about the diversity of gender practices during the late imperial society and the persistence and transformation of older gender ideologies under the conditions of modernity in China. While several studies have investigated gender or labor in late imperial and twentieth century China, this book brings these two concepts together, asking how these two categories interacted and produced new social practices and theories.

The story of the Renaissance has usually been told from the elite male perspective. Here, the lives of women and girls from a wide range of classes, religions, and countries in Europe take center stage. Women had a significant impact on the economy, social structures, and the culture of the Renaissance, despite the constraints on their exercise of power, lack of opportunities, enforced dependence, and exclusion from politics, government, science, law, banking, and more.

Energized by a wealth of new research into women's history, No Small Courage offers an unprecedented chronicle of American experience, charting women's gradual struggle for social and political independence, from the precolonial era to the present. Individual stories and primarysources--including letters, diaries, and news reports--animate this history of the domestic, professional, and political efforts of American women and explore the diverse realities that they have faced. No Small Courage dynamically captures the variety and significance of American women's experience, demonstrating with authority and engaging detail that the history of our nation cannot be fully understood without focusing on changes in women's lives.

America's Women tells the story of more than four centuries of history. It features an array of personalities, from the women peering worriedly over the side of the Mayflower to feminists having a grand old time protesting beauty pageants and bridal fairs. Author Gail Collins charts a journey that shows how women lived, what they cared about, and how they felt about marriage, sex, and work. Told chronologically through the compelling stories of individual lives that, linked together, this work provides a complete picture of the American woman's experience.

A comprehensive historical review of the debates surrounding women's contributions and roles in science, with emphasis on women's access to education, training, and professional careers.