The Duty of American Women to Their Country

Beecher, Catharine Esther, 1800-1878Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 221K words
Chapters: 23

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Duty of American Women to Their Country by Catharine Esther BeecherAuthor: Beecher, Catharine Esther, 1800-1878,Language: English, Class: LC: Education: Special aspects of education, Release Date: Dec 16, 2016

Editor's review

Catharine Esther Beecher was a leading nineteenth-century American advocate for women's education, and this book sets out her views on the duties and roles of American women as a work of educational argument. The text bears clear marks of its time: it discusses how women serve the nation and society through domestic education, moral influence, and self-cultivation, reflecting the mainstream discourse of the era on women's education and public responsibility. As a historical document, its value lies not in offering views to be adopted wholesale today, but in revealing the argumentative methods, value assumptions, and historical limits of nineteenth-century American thought on women's education. Readers may set it against contemporary gender and education debates, distinguishing which arguments are products of their time and which concerns still merit discussion. It suits readers in the history of education and gender studies as a primary source, and general readers who keep a critical distance from historical texts.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of American educational history and women's history
Readers interested in gender issues who wish to understand historical discourse
Writers seeking primary sources on nineteenth-century arguments about women
English-language readers interested in public-address argumentation

Not a good fit for

Readers looking for practical contemporary guides to women's personal growth
Parents and teachers seeking modern pedagogical methods
Casual readers impatient with the rhetoric of historical argumentation

Reading tips

Gain basic background on nineteenth-century American women's education before entering the text for smoother reading.
Distinguish the author's prescriptive claims from the social conditions of her time, taking critical notes.
Excerpt representative passages and set them alongside contemporary gender and education debates.
For course use, read by thematic grouping rather than straight through.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Are this book's views still applicable today?

Many of its claims carry nineteenth-century social conditions and value assumptions and should not be applied directly to the present. Its main value is in helping readers understand the shape of period discourse on women's education and public responsibility, and in reflecting on the historical roots of contemporary issues.

What was Beecher's background?

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800–1878) was a major nineteenth-century American advocate for women's education, long engaged in women's schooling and teacher training. This book is her educational argument addressed to society; for biographical details, consult reliable sources.

What background is needed to read this book?

An intermediate or higher level of English reading, plus basic familiarity with nineteenth-century American society and education. Without that background, read introductory material first; the argument's structure will then be easier to follow.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Beecher, Catharine Esther, 1800-1878 Author

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800–1878) was a nineteenth-century American writer concerned with domestic life and women's education, with nine works held in this collection. Her writing is known for its practical guidance: A Treatise on Domestic Economy addresses young women at home, setting out household arrangements and the management of a home; Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book and Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper turn everyday food, care of the household, and health management into workable advice. She also wrote The Duty of American Women to Their Country and Letters to Persons Who Are Engaged in Domestic Service, discussing women's duties in the family and society; An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism reflects her engagement with the social questions of her day, while Common Sense Applied to Religion shows her religious writing. Public information is limited, but her clear, orderly prose spread domestic knowledge and ideas about women's education, influencing American views of family life at the time.