The great Turkish empire of the seventeenth century, the most powerful of its day, was ruled by women who had been brought to Constantinople as slaves for the Sultan's pleasure-but used their slavery to acquire power on a global scale. This is the story of one such woman. . . . The harem slave Safiye, "the Fair One" as she is known, is the embodiment of beauty-and ambition. With her perfumed body and bewitching eyes, she rules the men who own her. She controls the Empire from within the veiled harem walls, her web of intrigue reaching far beyond Constantinople and into Europe. Her touch is felt in wars, acts of sabotage, and the machinations of both European and Asian politics. The aim of her ambition? To see that her son becomes ruler of the Ottoman Empire. She will allow nothing to stand in her way.

Venetian-born Safiye controls the Empire from within the veiled harem walls, her web of intrigue reaching far beyond Constantinople and into Europe. Allowing nothing to stand in her way, her sole ambition is to secure the throne of the Ottoman Empire for her son.

Interpretations of women in the antebellum period have long dwelt upon the notion of public versus private gender spheres. As part of the ongoing reevaluation of the prehistory of the women's movement, Carolyn Lawes challenges this paradigm and the primacy of class motivation. She studies the women of antebellum Worcester, Massachusetts, discovering that whatever their economic background, women there publicly worked to remake and improve their community in their own image. Lawes analyzes the organized social activism of the mostly middle-class, urban, white women of Worcester and finds that they were at the center of community life and leadership. Drawing on rich local history collections, Lawes weaves together information from city and state documents, court cases, medical records, church collections, newspapers, and diaries and letters to create a portrait of a group of women for whom constant personal and social change was the norm. Throughout Women and Reform in a New England Community, conventional women make seemingly unconventional choices. A wealthy Worcester matron helped spark a women-led rebellion against ministerial authority in the town's orthodox Calvinist church. Similarly, a close look at the town's sewing circles reveals that they were vehicles for political exchange as well as social gatherings that included men but intentionally restricted them to a subordinate role. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the women of Worcester had taken up explicitly political and social causes, such as an orphan asylum they founded, funded, and directed. Lawes argues that economic and personal instability rather than a desire for social control motivated women, even relatively privileged ones, into social activism. She concludes that the local activism of the women of Worcester stimulated, and was stimulated by, their interest in the first two national women's rights conventions, held in Worcester in 1850 and 1851. Far from being marginalized from the vital economic, social, and political issues of their day, the women of this antebellum New England community insisted upon being active and ongoing participants in the debates and decisions of their society and nation.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Learn how the seclusion of women can be used as a feminist defense against exploitation—and as an empowering force Internationally acclaimed author Ann Chamberlin’s book, A History of Women’s Seclusion in the Middle East: The Veil in the Looking Glass is a critical interdisciplinary examination of the practice of seclusion of women throughout the Middle East from its beginnings. This challenging exploration discusses the reasons that seclusion may not be as oppressive as is presently generally accepted, and, in fact, may be an empowering force for women in both the West and East. Readers are taken on a controversial, belief-bending journey deep into the surprising origins and diverse aspects of female seclusion to find solid evidence of its surprising use as a defense against monolithic cultural exploitation. The author uses her extensive knowledge of Middle Eastern culture, language, and even archeology to provide a convincing assertion challenging the Western view that seclusion was and is a result of women’s oppression. A History of Women’s Seclusion in the Middle East goes beyond standard feminist rhetoric to put forth shocking notions on the real reasons behind women’s seclusion and how it has been used to counteract cultural exploitation. The book reviews written evidence, domestic and sacred architecture, evolution, biology, the clan, the environment for seclusion, trade, capital and land, slavery, honor, and various other aspects in a powerful feminist argument that seclusion is actually a valuable empowering force of protection from the influence of today’s society. The text includes thirty black and white figures with useful descriptions to illustrate and enhance reader understanding of concepts. A History of Women’s Seclusion in the Middle East discusses at length: prehistoric evidence of seclusion the sense of honor in the Middle East a balanced look at the Islamic religion the true nature of the harem the reasons for the oppression by the Taliban the positive aspects of ’veiling’ seclusion as a defense against capitalist exploitation and other challenging perspectives! A History of Women’s Seclusion in the Middle East is thought-provoking, insightful reading for all interested in women’s history, feminism, and the history and culture of the Middle East.