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Kindred Nature

Victorian and Edwardian Women Embrace the Living World

In Kindred Nature, Barbara T. Gates highlights the contributions of Victorian and Edwardian women to the study, protection, and writing of nature. Recovering their works from the misrepresentation they often faced at the time of their composition, Gates discusses not just well-known women like Beatrix Potter but also others—scientists, writers, gardeners, and illustrators—who are little known today.

Some of these women discovered previously unknown species, others wrote and illustrated natural histories or animal stories, and still others educated women, the working classes, and children about recent scientific advances. A number of women also played pivotal roles in the defense of animal rights by protesting overhunting, vivisection, and habitat destruction, even as they demanded their own rights to vote, work, and enter universities.

Kindred Nature shows the enormous impact Victorian and Edwardian women had on the natural sciences and the environmental movement, and on our own attitudes toward nature and human nature.




312 pages | 52 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 1999

Biological Sciences: Natural History

History of Science

Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature

Women's Studies

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introductory
Pt. 1: Women on the Edge of Science
1: Who Can Speak in Nature’s Name?
2: Retelling the Story of Science: The Wonders of Nature
3: Cataloging the Natural World: Case Studies of Women Naturalists
Pt. 2: Nature’s Crusaders
4: Nurturing Nature
5: "Tongues of Fire": Womanist Visions of Nature
Pt. 3: Storied Nature
6: Aestheticizing Nature
7: Hunting and Gathering Writing
8: Storied Animals
9: Kindred Natures: The Earthlings
Afterward: An Afterword
Bibliography
Index

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