British Women Writers and the Writing of History, 1670-1820

Prior to the nineteenth century, the writing of history was understood as a male preserve from which women were restricted.

In British Women Writers and the Writing of History, Devoney Looser asks why some female writers of this period chose to write in a field and on a subject that marginalized or altogether excluded women.

Investigating the careers of Lucy Hutchinson, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Charlotte Lennox, Catharine Macaulay, Hester Lynch Piozzi, and Jane Austen, Looser asserts that, although British women's historically informed writings were not necessarily feminist or even female-focused, they were intimately involved in debates over the genre of history.