Women in the St.Louis Idealist Movement, 1860-1900

Accounts of the lives and work of the men who helped develop American Idealist thought tell only half the story of the movement that began in St. Louis. Women were central to the movement and developed three major streams of thought within it: pedagogy, feminism, and progressive political theory. The works in this set allows scholars and students alike to see how: women contributed significantly to the St. Louis "programme" to develop a sound pedagogy; many of them developed feminist theory as a natural outgrowth of that programme; and they originated political theories that intertwined thought and practice. All of the books and articles in this new collection are out of print and extremely rare (in one case there is only one archival copy extant). The intersections of thought should be of interest to scholars in many fields. Philosophers of education will take interest in how deeply embedded the pedagogical theory of Susan Blow, Anna Brackett and Grace Bibb was in their understanding of Hegel. Feminist theorists will take further interest in the ways in which feminism naturally grew out of pedagogy for Brackett and Bibb.
Feminists will also note that Ellen Mitchell, Eliza Sunderland, and Caroline Sherman developed their feminist theories apart from pedagogy. Historians of philosophy will find the early interpretation of philosophy and philosophers by Mitchell, Sunderland, Sherman, and May Wright Sewall to be interesting. Finally, social and political philosophers should be impressed by the ways in which Sewall, Marietta Kies, and Lucia Ames Mead articulated important political ideas that are still relevant at the beginning of the 21st century.