American Classicist

American Classicist

Author: Victoria Houseman

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-10-03

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 0691236186

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"Edith Hamilton (1867-1963), famed popularizer of the classics, whose books include Mythology and The Greek Way, introduced millions-literally millions-of general readers and young adults to the myths and culture of the Greco-Roman world. In the middle of the 20th century, she was arguably the most visible and widely read person on classics and mythology. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College and then a successful teacher and administrator at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Hamilton became well known to the public only when she was in her sixties. Her writings, written with a middle-American audience in mind, were intended to introduce general readers to a world of antiquity previously thought to be only the purview of those with knowledge of ancient languages. Her most successful book, Mythology, remains the most popular book of its kind and, like The Greek Way and The Roman Way, has never gone out of print. Houseman recounts Hamilton's life of ninety-five years, beginning with her childhood introduction to the study of Latin and Greek under her father's tutelage. Houseman explores the intellectual influences upon her, emphasizing in particular the nineteenth-century British thinkers whose work she encountered during her years as a student at Bryn Mawr, including Matthew Arnold and Edward Caird. It also tells the story of the two romantic relationships that shaped her life. The first was with Lucy Martin Donnelly, an English professor whose intellectual and aesthetic tastes made a profound impact upon Hamilton. The second, and more enduring, was with Doris Fielding Reid, with whom Hamilton lived for over forty years and with whom she raised a family composed of Reid's nephews and nieces. The biography also describes Hamilton's friendships with writers such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, as well as with Senator Ralph E. Flanders, who led the movement in the Senate to censure Joseph McCarthy and inspired Hamilton's depiction of Demosthenes in her final book, The Echo of Greece. Houseman also situates Edith Hamilton's writing in relation to contemporary events such as the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, American involvement in the Second World War, the dropping of the atomic bombs, and American foreign policy during the Cold War, among others. She argues that Hamilton's writing and themes were often a response to these events. Even Mythology, intended as a modern version of Bulfinch's Mythology, was partly written during the fascist Italian invasion of Greece and makes many arguments for the special claims of Greece in Western history. Her work has influenced generations of readers as well, and was even said to have been a favorite of Robert Kennedy's, who drew on The Greek Way for inspiration in drafting speeches. The book is intended to be the definitive biography of a fascinating and daring woman who arguably helped to save the classics in America. This will be first biography of Hamilton apart from one written by her partner Doris Fielding which was a mix of memoir and biography. This will also be the first to draw on Hamilton's letters and other primary sources"--


Southern Women at the Seven Sister Colleges

Southern Women at the Seven Sister Colleges

Author: Joan Marie Johnson

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0820334685

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From the end of Reconstruction and into the New South era, more than one thousand white southern women attended one of the Seven Sister colleges: Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, and Barnard. Joan Marie Johnson looks at how such educations—in the North, at some of the country’s best schools—influenced southern women to challenge their traditional gender roles and become active in woman suffrage and other social reforms of the Progressive Era South. Attending one of the Seven Sister colleges, Johnson argues, could transform a southern woman indoctrinated in notions of domesticity and dependence into someone with newfound confidence and leadership skills. Many southern students at northern schools imported the values they imbibed at college, returning home to found schools of their own, women’s clubs, and woman suffrage associations. At the same time, during college and after graduation, southern women maintained a complicated relationship to home, nurturing their regional identity and remaining loyal to the ideals of the Confederacy. Johnson explores why students sought a classical liberal arts education, how they prepared for entrance examinations, and how they felt as southerners on northern campuses. She draws on personal writings, information gleaned from college publications and records, and data on the women’s decisions about marriage, work, children, and other life-altering concerns. In their time, the women studied in this book would eventually make up a disproportionately high percentage of the elite southern female leadership. This collective biography highlights the important part they played in forging new roles for women, especially in social reform, education, and suffrage.


Women and the Society of Biblical Literature

Women and the Society of Biblical Literature

Author: Nicole L. Tilford

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2019-10-11

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 0884143902

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Celebrate 125 years of women's history in the Society of Biblical Literature. Fourteen years after eight male biblical scholars met in Philip Schaff's study to create the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, the Society admitted its first woman, Anna Ely Rhoads, in 1894. Since Rhoads joined, the careers and lives of women in SBL have changed radically from those earliest members, whose careers were largely tied to the careers of their fathers or spouses and to institutions concerned with the education of young women. Current members now serve on editorial boards and committees; women present papers and publish books; they teach and mentor students. Leading women biblical scholars from around the world reflect on their experiences studying the Bible academically in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This volume is a valuable tool for scholars and students interested in the lives and experiences of women in academic fields, the history of the SBL, and developments in the academic study of the Bible. Features An essay on the history of women in the SBL, tracing some of the struggles and accomplishments of the Society's earliest members More than twenty-five autobiographical reflections from former SBL presidents, Council members, editors, and active members Reflections from members who specialize in a variety of subdisciplines, representing a range of academic and alternative academic careers


Women in Mathematics

Women in Mathematics

Author: Janet L. Beery

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-12-02

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 3319666940

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This collection of refereed papers celebrates the contributions, achievements, and progress of female mathematicians, mostly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Emerging from the themed paper session “The Contributions of Women to Mathematics: 100 Years and Counting” at MAA's 2015 MathFest, this volume contains a diverse mix of current scholarship and exposition on women and mathematics, including biographies, histories, and cultural discussions. The multiplicity of authors also ensures a wide variety of perspectives. In inspiring and informative chapters, the authors featured in this volume reflect on the accomplishments of women in mathematics, showcasing the changes in mathematical culture that resulted as more women obtained tenure-track and tenured academic positions, received prestigious awards and honors, served in leadership roles in professional societies, and became more visibly active in the mathematical community. Readers will find discussions of mathematical excellence at Girton College, Cambridge, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; of perseverance by Polish women in mathematics during and after World War II and by Black women in mathematics in the United States from the 1880s onward; and of the impact of outreach programs ranging from EDGE's promotion of graduate education to the Daughters of Hypatia dance performances. The volume also provides informative biographies of a variety of women from mathematics and statistics, many of them well-known and others less well-known, including Charlotte Angas Scott, Emmy Noether, Mina Rees, Gertrude Cox, Euphemia Lofton Haynes, Norma Hernandez, Deborah Tepper Haimo, and Teri Perl. These essays provide compelling reading for a wide audience, including mathematicians, historians of science, teachers of mathematics, and students at the high school, college, and graduate levels. Anyone interested in attracting more girls and women as students, faculty, and/or employees will also find this volume engaging and enlightening.