Part II of the discussion of Judith Bennett’s History Matters is now up at Historiann.  I’ve only read the first few chapters of the book, so don’t feel like I can comment on the work as a whole.  What I will say is that Bennett, while criticizing historians who presume a premodern “golden age” for women, seems to have constructed a “golden age” model of the development of women’s history as a discipline — i.e. she and her generation were more “authentic” and genuinely feminist than us youngins’.  My professors in graduate school (Cornell, late 1980s/early 1990s) came of age around the same time, but also pointed out the methodological flaws and lack of rigor in some of the earliest works in women’s history.

Look for next week’s installment at Tenured Radical, and the March 23 edition by Another Damned Medievalist at Blogenspiel!