432
edits
Changes
m
insert middle ad
[[File:Rabbbi's_Atheist_.jpeg|left|thumbnail|250px|The Rabbi's Atheist Daughter by Bonnie S. Anderson]]
History is fickle. During the 19th Century, Ernestine Rose was one of the most important and famous international advocates for feminism, free thought and anti-slavery in the United States and Britain. She worked closely with renown renowned figures in this movement such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Despite her contributions to feminism, atheism, and anti-slavery, since her death she has slowly been erased from history. Bonnie S. Anderson's new book <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199756244/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199756244&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=30c7eb180622a0db38b9d23304adb25d The Rabbi's Atheist Daughter:Ernestine Rose , International Feminist Pioneer]</i> published by the [https://global.oup.com/academic/category/arts-and-humanities/history/?lang=en&cc=us Oxford University Press] is an effort re-illuminate the contributions of this remarkable women. Historian Pamela S. Nadell stated that "Bonnie Anderson uncovers, in this deeply researched work, the astonishing life of Ernestine Potowski Rose, champion of all human rights."
Bonnie S. Anderson is an emerita history professor at the City University of New York and a lifelong New Yorker. She probably could best be described as a women's historian, but this focus has allowed her to study and write about a diversity of topics including the 19th Century Atlantic world, feminism and the history of sexuality. You can read another interview with her about her career as a historian at the [http://blog.historians.org/2016/12/aha-member-spotlight-bonnie-s-anderson/ AHA blog]. She has published several books including the classic <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195128389/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0195128389&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=ae4748818883cd06daf0f4930762dd6b A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the PresentVolume 1] and [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195128397/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0195128397&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=b3770f59f61dd55cda6ae54bfdf62bed 2]</i>, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030T12BY/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0030T12BY&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=bbe3b4257efa9f872dc83236fc286f6d Joyous Greetings: The First International Women's Movement, 1830-1860]</i>, and <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521695449/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0521695449&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=b2ce6e8dcd5b53b2cb76b2d8df7e55d8 Women in Early Modern and Modern Europe]</i>. You should also check out [http://www.bonnieanderson.com/ Professor Anderson's Blog]. Here is our interview with Professor Anderson.
'''How would you describe yourself as a historian?'''
The sexism I experienced in graduate school led me to join Columbia Women’s Liberation in 1969. After a few years of being in both a consciousness-raising group and the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession (CCWHP), I realized that history itself excluded women. In the mid-‘70s I began working in women’s history and the rest of my professional life, both teaching and writing, has been in women’s history. My first book, A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, done with Judith P. Zinsser, was two volumes long and took ten years to write. (It first came out here in 1988 and then was published in Britain, Germany, Spain, and Italy. We did a revised edition in 2000.) I then moved into transatlantic women’s history. Both Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement, 1830-1860 (2000) and my current biography of Ernestine Rose, The Rabbi’s Atheist Daughter: Ernestine Rose, International Feminist Pioneer, deal with both the United States and Western Europe.
[[File:BonnieAnderson.jpeg|thumbnail|left|275px|Bonnie Anderson]]
'''Ernestine Rose was at the heart of the 19th-century American feminist and abolition movementmovements, but I am far less familiar with her than her contemporaries such as Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth. Why isn’t she better known? What Why has she been written out of history?'''
I think there are three chief reasons. First, Rose’s life was truly international. She was born in Poland and lived there until she was 17. She then spent two years in Berlin, followed by 15 months in Paris. From 1831 to ’36, she lived in London, where she became a follower of Robert Owen, the industrialist-turned-socialist. His teachings became her life-long creed. This international heritage profoundly shaped her life, so just dealing with U.S. history tended to exclude her.
Finally, she has no archive. In old age, she discarded the newspapers and writings that told the story of her life, convinced that no one would be interested in her. It wasn’t until Paula Doress-Worters’ anthology of her speeches and writings appeared in 2008 that I felt I could write her biography.
<dh-ad/>
'''Why did you become interested in writing about Rose? What made her such an intriguing subject?'''
'''When you were researching this book what did you learn that surprised you the most?'''
The extent of Rose’s atheism and the free thought communities that supported her. I knew about her feminism and her abolitionism, but not much about her free thought. During one of her first public speeches in New York, she was shouted down as an “Infidel,” the derogatory terms term for freethinkers then. In 1845, she argued that the freethought society of “Moral Philanthropists” should rename themselves “The Infidel Society,” embracing the term much the way gays and lesbians embraced the label “queer” in the late twentieth century. When she went to England in 1869, she was welcomed by a large freethough community, members of which became her closest friends.
[[File:Highgate_Cemetery_-_East_-_Rose_01.jpg|thumbnail|275px|left|Ernestine Rose's grave in Highgate Cemetery]]
'''What do you want your readers to take away from your book and Rose’s story?'''
'''Who should read your book and how would you recommend using it in the classroom?'''
One of my favorite blurbs states that “while many books claim they are intended for both an academic and popular audience, The Rabbi’s Atheist Daughter delivers on that promise.” I wrote my book for the reader who is not a historian, who does not know the intricacies of the 19th century, and who has never heard of this amazing woman. I think it could easily be used in both undergraduate and graduate courses in colleges for U.S. history, women’s history, or women’s studies. It’s also appropriate for advanced high school students and parts of it could easily be exerpted excerpted for use in high schools. <div class="portal" style="width:85%;">==Related DailyHistory.org Articles==*[[What is the significance of the 1968 East L.A. Walkouts?]]*[[What was the Second Wave Feminist Movement?]]*[[Angels of the Underground: Interview with Theresa Kaminski]]*[[Nature's Path: Interview with Susan E. Cayleff]]*[[What Was the Fate of Women During the Bangladesh Liberation War?]]</div>{{Mediawiki:Civil Rights History}} ==References==<references>[[Category:Wikis]][[Category:United States History]] [[Category:Women's History]][[Category:Feminist History]][[Category:19th Century History]] [[Category:Civil Rights History]]{{Contributors}}
