The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History Book

The Encyclopedia of Women in World History captures the experiences of women throughout world history in a comprehensive, 4-volume work. Although there has been extensive research on women in history by region, no text or reference work has comprehensively covered the role women have played throughout world history.

The past thirty years have seen an explosion of research and effort to present the experiences and contributions of women not only in the Western world but across the globe. Historians have investigated womens daily lives in virtually every region and have researched the leadership roles women have filled across time and region. They have found and demonstrated that there is virtually no historical, social, or demographic change in which women have not been involved and by which their lives have not been affected. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History benefits greatly from these efforts and experiences, and illuminates how women worldwide have influenced and been influenced by these historical, social, and demographic changes.

The Encyclopedia contains over 1,250 signed articles arranged in an A-Z format for ease of use. The entries cover six main areas: biographies; geography and history; comparative culture and society, including adoption, abortion, performing arts; organizations and movements, such as the Egyptian Uprising, and the Paris Commune; womens and gender studies; and topics in world history that include slave trade, globalization, and disease. With its rich and insightful entries by leading scholars and experts, this reference work is sure to be a valued, go-to resource for scholars, college and high school students, and general readers alike.

Nadine Cohen - Library Journal

Edited by Smith (history, Rutgers, Univ.; The Gender of History: Men, Women, and Historical Practice), these four volumes combine scholarship from the relatively new fields of world history and women's history to produce a thoughtful, thorough, and accessible survey of women in world history to which some 900 researchers from 50plus countries have contributed. The nearly 1250 entries range in size from singlepage biographies to indepth analyses with multiple subsections, and each conclude with a selected bibliography. The entries follow one of three approaches to world history: geographic, focusing on governments from prehistory to the present; comparative, emphasizing universal experiences such as disability and religion; and connective, exploring the interactions among peoples through experiences such as migration and globalization. A topical index clarifies and concretizes these approaches by dividing the entries into nine conceptual categories, e.g., "Geography and Ethnicity" and "Comparative Culture and Society." Additionally, there are 650 line illustrations, a detailed chronology of women's history, and a comprehensive index. The work's breath and depth make it a perfect candidate for keyword searching and an excellent addition to Oxford's Digital Reference Shelf online platform. If the online version is purchased as part of the Premium Collection, its biographical content can be supplemented by crosssearching all other titles in that collection. BOTTOM LINE Smith does an admirable job of summarizing and synthesizing a vast academic literature in clear, jargonfree language that will engage scholars and general readers alike. Because the biographical entries areintentionally brief and selective, libraries will want to complement the print version with a similarly strong biographical reference work, such as the 17volume Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia(Yorkin, 2002). Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. [eISBN 9780195337860]