Women in 19th Century America; Women in 19th Century Europe

In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft called on men on behalf of women to ‘snap our chains’. In 1999 there is still a dearth of books which discuss women’s contribute to history and social change. These two clearly written and well laid out books discuss how women’s lives had changed by 1900. The role of technological changes and their impact on the workplace is covered as well as the impact of radical movements and women’s own struggles for greater equality and freedom, despite the continuing divisions of class and race. Both titles include brief biographies of influential figures and are extensively illustrated with photographs, prints and artworks. Women in 19th Century America is better focussed and livelier than Women in 19th Europe which suffers from too wide a brief.