Commentary

• Beyond the Bon Ménage: Tocqueville and the Paradox of Liberal Citoyennes

  - Cheryl B. Welch, "Beyond the Bon Ménage: Tocqueville and the Paradox of Liberal Citoyennes" in Feminist Interpretations of Alexis de Tocqueville, ed. Jill Locke and Eileen Hunt Botting. (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009)
  Excerpt: The theme of claustration–the cloistering of women in religious houses–was a staple of gothic literature in the first half of the nineteenth century.  Melodramas of incarceration tapped general fears about women’s divided loyalties… More

• Tocqueville’s American Woman and “The True Conception of Democratic Progress”

  - Delba Winthrop, "Tocqueville's American Woman and "The True Conception of Democratic Progress" in Feminist Interpretations of Alexis de Tocqueville, ed. Jill Locke and Eileen Hunt Botting. (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009)
  Excerpt: Women, although the moral and intellectual equals of men, should remain barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen? To us, the thought is repugnant, not to say wrongheaded. At first glance there seems no better place to turn to—or run from— than… More