During the eighteenth century, elite women participated in the philosophical, scientific, and political controversies that resulted in the overthrow of monarchy, the reconceptualisation of marriage, and the emergence of modern, democratic institutions. In this comprehensive study, Karen Green outlines and discusses the ideas and arguments of these women, exploring the development of their distinctive and contrasting political positions, and their engagement with the works of political thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, Mandeville and Rousseau. Her exploration ranges across Europe from England through France, Italy, Germany and Russia, and discusses thinkers including Mary Astell, Emilie Du Châtelet, Luise Kulmus-Gottsched and Elisabetta Caminer Turra. This study demonstrates the depth of women's contributions to eighteenth-century political debates, recovering their historical significance and deepening our understanding of this period in intellectual history. It will provide an essential resource for readers in political philosophy, political theory, intellectual history, and women's studies.

Karen Green is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She has published numerous articles and books, including The Woman of Reason: Feminism, Humanism and Political Thought (1995) and A History of Women's Political Thought in Europe, 1400-1700 (with Jacqueline Broad, Cambridge, 2009).

'Karen Green's bold survey of women writers on politics and society across Europe and England convincingly demonstrates the presence and profound centrality of women of letters to Enlightenment argument. A must-read for those committed to understanding the diversity and authority of women's intellectual history.' Wendy Gunther-Canada, University of Alabama, Birmingham