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June 2017 Vol. 54 No. 10


Routledge


The following review appeared in the June 2017 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.

Reference
General

54-4524
[Internet Resource]
Routledge Historical Resources: History of Feminism, ed. by Ann Heilmann. Routledge, 2017. Perpetual licensing fees begin at approximately $7,000.00. Internet Resource.
https://www.routledgehistoricalresources.com/feminism/

[Visited Feb'17] This first release of a new platform under the umbrella name of Routledge Historical Resources represents a program for studying the long 19th century (1776–1928) through digitized thematic collections and scholarship drawn from Taylor and Francis imprints and authors. This full-text, interdisciplinary content dealing with the history of feminism features primary and secondary sources of journal articles (published 1987–2015), along with books (more than 1,000 chapters), thematic essays and broad subject introductions, and gallery images. Primary source material mainly comes from sets in Routledge's "Major Works" series. The academic editor of the collection is English literature scholar Ann Heilmann (Cardiff Univ., UK), who helped to curate the content and provides a video introduction for users. Nonsubscribers can access the video and the subject introductions for free.

A simple keyword search box is prominent in the header of all pages, but users can also browse and narrow by content type, subject, organization, region, period, contributor, and notable figures. Results can be sorted by relevancy, titles A–Z, or publication date. The subject focus is broad, covering sections labeled Education, Literature and Writings, Movements and Ideologies, Politics and Law, Religion and Belief, Society and Culture, and Women at Home. Users can browse or restrict searches to six designated time periods (1850–99 offers the majority of items). World regions include Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. A Notable Figures section of the site lists a wide range of women and men—prominent or obscure—who were "responsible for drawing attention to the frustrations and injustices from which women suffered in the home and in public life." Josephine Butler, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George Eliot, John Stuart Mill, and Mary Wollstonecraft are just a few of the hundreds of individuals listed. Sixteen thematic essays, commissioned for the History of Feminism from noted scholars, address a variety of topics, including suffrage, sexuality, marriage and law, literature, women's work, science, education, politics, and spiritualism. The gallery contains images of photographs, postcards, banners, cartoons, magazine covers, buttons, posters, and more—all depicting various aspects and events in feminist history.

The site is attractive and intuitive, providing multiple entry points into its rich content, with time-saving design features to aid navigation, categorization, and discovery, including publication data, DOIs, PDFs, tables of contents, citation styles, page numbers, and related searches. MARC21-formatted records are also available. Content will not be updated (due to the publisher's perpetual-access sales model), but technical functions and features may be. This collection offers a rich trove of feminist scholarship, primary research, historical context, and notable figures, wrapped in a handsome and accessible package. Researchers interested in the historical development of feminism and those in women's studies and related interdisciplinary programs will find the resource immensely valuable.

--S. Markgren, Manhattan College

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels.