Mary R. Beard (1876–1958)
Author of A Basic History of the United States
About the Author
Image credit: Underwood & Underwood,
Library of Congress
Works by Mary R. Beard
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1876-08-05
- Date of death
- 1958-08-14
- Burial location
- Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York, USA
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Places of residence
- Greencastle, Indiana, USA
New York, New York, USA - Education
- DePauw University
- Occupations
- historian
women's rights advocate
archivist
suffragist
editor - Relationships
- Beard, Charles A. (husband)
Beard, William (son)
Beard, Miriam (daughter)
Vagts, Detlev (grandson)
Blatch, Harriot Stanton (colleague)
Pankhurst, Emmeline (friend) - Organizations
- Congressional Union
Women's Trade Union League
National Women's Party - Short biography
- Mary Ritter was one of seven children born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to a veteran of the U.S. Civil War and his wife. She attended public schools and graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. She was president of her class at DePauw University, where she met her future husband, Charles Austin Beard. After graduating in 1897, she worked as a German teacher while Charles traveled to England for graduate studies at Oxford University. In 1900, they married and she accompanied him back to England. She became friends with a wide variety of influential radicals and progressive leaders, including Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, and Peter Kropotkin. Mary Ritter Beard began to write history, and became involved in labor organizations and the women's suffrage movement, joining the Women's Trade Union League. The Beards returned to the USA in 1902, after the birth of their first child, settling in New York City. She became a leader of the New York City Suffrage Party (NYCSP) and edited its publication, The Woman Voter. She left the NYCSP in 1913 to join the Congressional Union, later known as the National Woman's Party), where she became editor of its weekly magazine The Suffragist. She helped plan strategy, organized and participated in demonstrations, lectured, wrote articles, and testified before Congress. Following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, she concentrated on her writing and on developing her philosophy concerning women in history, which was that women have always played a central role in all civilizations. With Rosika Schwimmer, she founded the World Center for Women’s Archives (WCWA) in 1935. Her books on women's role in history included On Understanding Women (1931), America Through Women's Eyes (1933), and Woman as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities (1946). In addition, she collaborated with her husband on several major works, most notably The Rise of American Civilization (1927).
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Reviews
Woman as force in history : a study in traditions… by Mary Ritter Beard
Probes the roots of sexual discrimination, the subjection of women throughout legal history, and the impact of women on politics, economics, culture and social and intellectual developments since ancient times.
The history is mostly good, inasmuch as there are no overaggressive moral claims as our current crop of historians feel obliged to place in their work. It is strictly fact based, and it provides a range of facts far exceeding that presented in most works of history, in large part because the Beards were early adherents of the study of the material influences on political and social development. In that sense it is more comprehensive--and more instructive--than any of the variety of textbooks we now use to teach high school students.
However--while there are no overaggressive moral claims in the work, there are moral claims hidden in the telling, and they are hidden in such a way as to make it easy to overlook their presence. This I have a problem with, because it is a way of distorting history that is very subtle. So, for instance, the figure of John C. Calhoun is discussed as a War Hawk senator and later the most aggressive of the Southern congressmen, but in their discussion of the Nullification Crisis of 1832 the Beards never mention his name, and they never mention his work as Vice President, in which office, largely because of the Nullification Crisis, he was one of the three most important occupants in our history, along with Thomas Jefferson and Richard Nixon. When discussing the literary output of the antebellum period, they give short shrift to the Disquisition on Government, and they do not mention the phrase 'concurrent majority' which is Calhoun's major idea. Instead it seems they give more credence to advances in surgery at the time, ignoring the fact that this was a period that did not know germ theory and whose advances, in light of the rate of surgical failure during the Civil War, can only be considered as minimal. In the same vein, the name of Henry David Thoreau does not appear--as though, in the literary advances of the antebellum period, neither Walden nor Civil Disobedience was of any importance.
In essence one has to be very careful reading this book, because the omissions are overwhelming, especially as regards the South. The name of Stonewall Jackson does not appear, despite the fact that he is one of the greatest of all American generals and his military strategy remains a subject of study. Regardless of whether you agree with the Confederate ideal, it seems to me almost impossible to discuss the Civil War and not mention Stonewall Jackson, whose death changes the course of it, if not necessarily the outcome. The same is true of J.E.B. Stuart, one of the great heroes, albeit in a losing cause, of American history. Ditto for John Randolph of Roanoke, one of the great politicians of the early Republic and an important influence on Southern conservatism, which was then and remains now an enormously influential trend in American politics.
The book takes for granted the role of the federal government and does not present in a serious manner the serious concept of 'states' rights' which Henry Adams, himself no states' rights proponent, called 'a sound and true doctrine.' And this to me is problematic. It takes the Hobbesian model of a Leviathan, growing at its subjects' expense, as the model of United States government--and it uses the Constitution as its justification for so doing. In that sense it parallels Richard Hofstadter's claim in The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It that the Constitution was created with Hobbes and Calvin as its primary intellectual progenitors.
According to Hobbes civil society is an implementation of God's will and when men join into it, the act of rebellion becomes theologically and morally wrong under any pretexts whatsoever. And in that line of thinking also comes Calvin, who says that men get the government they deserve, and if they get tyranny they must passively bear with it, as it is God's preordained wish for them to have it.
On the surface of it the attribution of intellectual debt from the Constitution to Hobbes and Calvin is a contradiction in terms. Under Hobbes' philosophical model there is no need for a Constitution, and the very act of writing one is most likely a dangerous evil. Under Calvin's model a Constitution is merely a waste of time and energy, since no human construction matters and only the will of God will prevail.
So, long story made long, I recommend this book with extreme caution, as a student both of political theory and of American History. It is better than much of what has been written, especially in its emphasis on the material foundations of American political and social development, but it is extremely problematic in several respects, all of which deserve to be noticed.… (more)
However--while there are no overaggressive moral claims in the work, there are moral claims hidden in the telling, and they are hidden in such a way as to make it easy to overlook their presence. This I have a problem with, because it is a way of distorting history that is very subtle. So, for instance, the figure of John C. Calhoun is discussed as a War Hawk senator and later the most aggressive of the Southern congressmen, but in their discussion of the Nullification Crisis of 1832 the Beards never mention his name, and they never mention his work as Vice President, in which office, largely because of the Nullification Crisis, he was one of the three most important occupants in our history, along with Thomas Jefferson and Richard Nixon. When discussing the literary output of the antebellum period, they give short shrift to the Disquisition on Government, and they do not mention the phrase 'concurrent majority' which is Calhoun's major idea. Instead it seems they give more credence to advances in surgery at the time, ignoring the fact that this was a period that did not know germ theory and whose advances, in light of the rate of surgical failure during the Civil War, can only be considered as minimal. In the same vein, the name of Henry David Thoreau does not appear--as though, in the literary advances of the antebellum period, neither Walden nor Civil Disobedience was of any importance.
In essence one has to be very careful reading this book, because the omissions are overwhelming, especially as regards the South. The name of Stonewall Jackson does not appear, despite the fact that he is one of the greatest of all American generals and his military strategy remains a subject of study. Regardless of whether you agree with the Confederate ideal, it seems to me almost impossible to discuss the Civil War and not mention Stonewall Jackson, whose death changes the course of it, if not necessarily the outcome. The same is true of J.E.B. Stuart, one of the great heroes, albeit in a losing cause, of American history. Ditto for John Randolph of Roanoke, one of the great politicians of the early Republic and an important influence on Southern conservatism, which was then and remains now an enormously influential trend in American politics.
The book takes for granted the role of the federal government and does not present in a serious manner the serious concept of 'states' rights' which Henry Adams, himself no states' rights proponent, called 'a sound and true doctrine.' And this to me is problematic. It takes the Hobbesian model of a Leviathan, growing at its subjects' expense, as the model of United States government--and it uses the Constitution as its justification for so doing. In that sense it parallels Richard Hofstadter's claim in The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It that the Constitution was created with Hobbes and Calvin as its primary intellectual progenitors.
According to Hobbes civil society is an implementation of God's will and when men join into it, the act of rebellion becomes theologically and morally wrong under any pretexts whatsoever. And in that line of thinking also comes Calvin, who says that men get the government they deserve, and if they get tyranny they must passively bear with it, as it is God's preordained wish for them to have it.
On the surface of it the attribution of intellectual debt from the Constitution to Hobbes and Calvin is a contradiction in terms. Under Hobbes' philosophical model there is no need for a Constitution, and the very act of writing one is most likely a dangerous evil. Under Calvin's model a Constitution is merely a waste of time and energy, since no human construction matters and only the will of God will prevail.
So, long story made long, I recommend this book with extreme caution, as a student both of political theory and of American History. It is better than much of what has been written, especially in its emphasis on the material foundations of American political and social development, but it is extremely problematic in several respects, all of which deserve to be noticed.… (more)
It is a great survey book of women's history written by a prominent historian. Anyone interested in women's history must read Mary Beard. This book gives you perspectives that you probably haven't read before.
Excellent women's history from the pre WWII perspective, giving a different perspective then most of us learned about ancient history and onward.
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- Works
- 18
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 905
- Popularity
- #28,349
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 6
- ISBNs
- 23