Women

"Normal" People Made History Commentary

Why would I want to study peasants, when I can study kings?”, asked a fellow historian.   “Kings,” he continued, “made history.”     He was reacting to my comment that it’s important to study “normal” people.  My friend thought I trumpeted the usual, social history mantra.  But I meant something different.

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Toward an Inclusive History of the Civil War: Society and the Home Front Commentary

The Civil War has been one of the most studied events of United States history.  But with the advent of social history, scholars have asked many new questions concerning the history of race, class, and gender--to name three examples.  By exploring the role of women during the Civil War, historian Victoria E. Ott provides an example of social historians' concerns and argues that the "conflict was more than just great battles and great men."  

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When Wilmington Threw A Tea Party: Women and Political Awareness in Revolution-Era North Carolina Commentary

Most readers are familiar with the details of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, and properly identify it as a key event in the radical movement that triggered the American Revolution. Many North Carolinians have also heard of the Edenton Tea Party of October 1774, when the leading women of that Eastern North Carolina town did not actually dump tea in a nearby sound but did stage one of the nation’s earliest acts of political theater by women. But how many are familiar with the far more incendiary Wilmington Tea Party of 1775, also led by women?

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