Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe

The third edition of Merry Wiesner-Hanks’ prize-winning survey of women and gender in early modern Europe. The updated edition features an entirely new chapter on gender and race in the colonial world; expanded coverage of eighteenth century developments including the Enlightenment; and enhanced discussions of masculinity, single women, same-sex relations, humanism, and women’s religious roles within Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. All of the chapters incorporate the newest scholarship and the book preserves the clear structure of previous editions with its tripartite division of mind, body, and spirit. Within this structure, other themes include the female life-cycle, women’s economic roles, artistic creations, education and witchcraft. Coverage is geographically broad, including Russia, Scandinavia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Iberian peninsula. This is essential reading for all students of early modern Europe and gender history and is accompanied by a website featuring extensive updated bibliographies, weblinks and primary source material.