The Political Thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Women’s Rights and the American Political Traditions

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was not only one of the most important leaders of the nineteenth century women’s rights movement but was also the movement’s principal philosopher. Her ideas challenged the conventions of the time period that so severely constrained women’s choices and excluded them from public life.In The Political Thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Sue Davis argues that Cady Stanton’s work reflects the rich tapestry of American political culture in the second half of the nineteenth century. Consequently, as Davis demonstrates, Cady Stanton deserves recognition as one of America’s major political thinkers. Davis reveals the way that Cady Stanton’s work drew from different political traditions ranging from liberal egalitarianism to radicalism. Although Cady Stanton’s arguments for women’s rights combined what have come to be conflicting versions of feminism, her ideas are reflected in late twentieth and early twentieth century feminisms.Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, The Political Thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton draws on a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, and promises to fill a gap in the literature on the history of political ideas in the United States as well as women’s history and feminist theory.