In this masterful, deeply researched study, Bailey Stone expertly dissects the role and status of women in the genesis, course, and outcome of three European revolutions that defined the modern era. Arguing that gender as a historical phenomenon is best examined through its intersectionality with class, nationality, politics, and war, the author shows how the breakdown of public order and state collapse created a space for rethinking and recreating gender and family relationships in opposition to established patriarchies, only for this space to be narrowed or closed once revolutionary regimes solidified or were replaced by others devoted to restoring order. As this major study--illuminating our past as well as our present--demonstrates beyond any doubt, all patriarchies have their fragilities, making progress towards equality a possibility, if not an inevitability.

Thomas E. Kaiser, Professor of History Emeritus, University of Arkansas at Little Rock