This work provides the first translation into any language of the collected writings of Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel on the status of women. Hippel (1741-1796) perhaps did more than any man in history to try to elevate the position of women and secure for them the rights of citizenship. Included in this works is the first complete translation into English of Hippel's ground-breaking book, On Improving the Status of Women, which appeared in 1792, the same year as Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. While Hippel is not as well known as Wollstonecraft, On Improving the Status of Women nevertheless can be considered, together with Wollstonecraft's Vindication, as comprising the first true manifesto on feminism. In addition, the present book contains selections from Hippel's two novels, his nature writings, his autobiography, and his legal treatises, which describe, often poignantly, the low status of women in the latter half of the eighteenth century and appeal for an improvement in the status, as well as a restoration of their civil rights. Also included is a lengthy essay on Hippel's paradoxical life, and an appendix analyzing the reasons for Hippel's decision to publish all his works anonymously. This unique work makes a significant contribution to women's and gender studies, legal studies, Enlightenment history, philosophy, anthropology, and German and French political and intellectual history.
- ISBN10 1441542868
- ISBN13 9781441542861
- Publish Date 26 October 2009 (first published June 2005)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Xlibris
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 546
- Language English