Changes

Jump to: navigation, search
no edit summary
[[File:Rabbbi's_Atheist_.jpeg|left|thumbnail|250px|The Rabbi's Atheist Daughter by Bonnie S. Anderson]]
History is fickle. During the 19th Century, Ernestine Rose was one of the most important and famous international advocates for feminism, free thought and anti-slavery in the United States and Britain. She worked closely with renown figures in this movement such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Despite her contributions to feminism, atheism, and anti-slavery, since her death she has slowly been erased from history. Bonnie S. Anderson's new book <i>The Rabbi's Atheist Daughter:Ernestine Rose International Feminist Pioneer</i> is an effort re-illuminate the contributions of this remarkable women. Historian Pamela S. Nadell stated that "Bonnie Anderson uncovers, in this deeply researched work, the astonishing life of Ernestine Potowski Rose, champion of all human rights."
Bonnie S. Anderson is an emerita history professor at the City University of New York and a lifelong New Yorker. She probably could best described as a women's historian, but this focus has allowed her to study and write about a diversity of topics including 19th Century Atlantic world, feminism and the history of sexuality. She has published several books including the classic <i>A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present</i>, <i>Joyous Greetings: The First International Women's Movement, 1830-1860</i>, and <i>Women in Early Modern and Modern Europe</i>.
'''How would you describe yourself as a historian?'''
The extent of Rose’s atheism and the free thought communities that supported her. I knew about her feminism and her abolitionism, but not much about her free thought. During one of her first public speeches in New York, she was shouted down as an “Infidel,” the derogatory terms for freethinkers then. In 1845, she argued that the freethought society of “Moral Philanthropists” should rename themselves “The Infidel Society,” embracing the term much the way gays and lesbians embraced the label “queer” in the late twentieth century. When she went to England in 1869, she was welcomed by a large freethough community, members of which became her closest friends.
[[File:Highgate_Cemetery_-_East_-_Rose_01.jpg|thumbnail|275px|left|Ernestine Rose's grave in Highgate Cemetery]]
 
'''What do you want your readers to take away from your book and Rose’s story?'''

Navigation menu