Introduction: Her Unsurpassed Speech
Ch 1. Self-Creation
Ch 2. The New Moral World
Ch 3. A Radical in New York City
Ch 4. Building A Women's Movement
Ch 5. "Agitate, Agitate!"
Ch 6. A Minority of One
Ch 7. Dissention, Division, Departure
Ch 8. The Heroine of a Hundred Battles
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Bonnie S. Anderson is professor of history emerita at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the author of Joyous Greetings: The First International Women's Movement (OUP, 2000) and co-author of A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present (OUP, 2000).
"Well-written and insightful, this book is a welcome addition to
recent literature that internationalizes our understanding of
nineteenth-century American social activism. In recounting Rose's
highly unusual path into American antislavery, women's rights and
freethought, Anderson enriches the traditional narrative of
antebellum reform and points out the ways in which transatlantic
connections both enhanced and complicated the life of key
antebellum social
movements." -- Paul E. Teed, History
"In this deeply researched, eloquently crafted volume, Bonnie
Anderson brings to life one of the most fascinating, yet elusive,
figures of the nineteenth century... Anderson restores her subject
to the pivotal place she clearly occupied among her peers. And for
contemporary readers, Anderson draws inspiration from the past to
challenge us to seek a future-feminist, internationalist,
anti-racist-that Ernestine Rose worked hard to envision." -- Kathi
Kern,
American Jewish History
"Engaging... Bonnie S. Anderson's biography of the remarkable
Ernestine Potowska Rose explores a once-famous activist and
utilizes her life to offer new insights about the movement for
rights in antebellum America and beyond... In her careful
exploration of a woman's-rights pioneer, an internationalist, and
an atheist, Anderson offers new insights not only into the reform
experience but also Rose's individual journey, one occasionally at
odds with the
communities to which she belonged." -- Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz,
Journal of the Early Republic
"Anderson has written a carefully researched and engaging
biography, which, while sympathetic, is never fawning. Despite the
dearth of information about Rose's personal life, Anderson
constructs an intimate, honest portrait that captures Rose's
immense intellect and wit and her tendency toward self-righteous
condescension." -- Dawn M. Greeley, English Historical Review
"Tapping international research and literature, drawing on her
expertise in international women's history and emphasizing the
transatlantic nature of Rose's life and work, Anderson creates new
context for understanding Ernestine Rose's life, work, and words."
-- Katherine Durack, American Jewish Archives Journal
"Highly engaging....A wide-ranging and informative biography, The
Rabbi's Atheist Daughter provides exceptional insights into the
status of Christianity within the major political movements of the
nineteenth century....Anderson offers a model life-and-times study
of Rose....She also frames a biography, rich in context, that seems
surprisingly relevant to readers today. Anderson sagely concludes
that Rose's concerns for racial equality, feminism, and
free thought, enriched by an international perspective, gain new
importance during an era of resurging religious
fundamentalism."--Mari Jo Buhle, Journal of American History
"Anderson's thoughtful, well-written biography reexamines the life
and work of feminist pioneer Ernestine Rose. Born in Poland in 1810
as the only child of an orthodox rabbi, Rose was a fixture in the
women's suffrage and free-thinking movements in the US and Europe
in the 19th century....As Anderson argues, Rose's belief in
equality for all, no matter their religion, nationality, or race,
does not sound as strange to today's readers as it did to many of
her
contemporaries. Consequently, Ernestine Rose was a woman well ahead
of her time. Highly recommended."--CHOICE
"Ernestine Rose has long been relegated to the margins of the
abolitionist and woman's rights movements to which she devoted her
life. In Bonnie Anderson's new book we have, finally, a biography
that is as eloquent, passionate, freethinking, transnational,
argumentative, and eager to explore the boundaries of radical
possibility as was Rose herself."--Lori D. Ginzberg, author of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life
"Bonnie Anderson uncovers, in this deeply researched work, the
astonishing life of Ernestine Potowski Rose, champion of all human
rights. A powerful orator, she crisscrossed an ocean and continents
to speak her mind. A contemporary newspaper expected that it would
take a hundred years for her to be fully appreciated. This
excellent biography of a woman of fierce intellect and
uncompromising convictions fulfills that prediction, affording our
generation the
fullest depiction yet of the remarkable Ernestine Rose."--Pamela S.
Nadell, author of Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women's
Ordination, 1889-1985
"For someone (like me) who thought she knew Ernestine Rose, this
book is a revelation. The gift Bonnie Anderson gives us is the
opportunity to hear the fearless words actually spoken by Ernestine
Rose, and they're magnificent, powerful testimony to her constancy,
boldness, and defiant advocacy for women's rights."--Susan Weidman
Schneider, Editor in Chief, Lilith Magazine
"Bonnie Anderson tells the powerful story of Ernestine Rose, one of
the most distinguished and distinctive advocates of woman's rights,
free thought, and racial equality in the nineteenth century. Rose
linked activists in the United States with radical traditions in
Britain and Europe, reminding readers of the multifaceted and
transatlantic character of nineteenth-century social movements.
While many books claim they are intended for both an academic
and
popular audience, The Rabbi's Atheist Daughter delivers on that
promise."--Nancy A. Hewitt, Rutgers University
"Anderson's portrait of a little-remembered activist will be a
useful resource for scholars interested in the history of feminist
intellectuals and 19th-century social movements."--Library
Journal
"Anderson has written an excellent biography of a too-little-known
figure, and a fine addition to history and women's-studies
collections."--Booklist Online Review
"Bonnie S. Anderson's new biography elevates [Ernestine Rose]
further into the top rank of 19th-century agitators...[H]er picture
of Rose is consistently drawn with clarity and color."--Los Angeles
Review of Books
"Readers should find this biography of an 'international feminist
pioneer' a fascinating reading experience about an amazing
woman."--Jewish Independent
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