Consistent Democracy offers an intellectual history of democracy and the so-called woman question from the 1830s through the 1890s. It shows that in asking and answering questions about women's roles, responsibilities, and rights, Americans grappled with fundamental ideas about democracy.

Acknowledgments Introduction Prelude: Posing the Woman Question in 1838 Part I: American Democracy, American Women Chapter 1: Observing American Democracy Chapter 2: Domesticating Democracy Chapter 3: To Make Democracy Consistent Interlude: Self-Government on Trial in 1863 Part II: Woman Questions, Democracy Questions Chapter 4: Amending Democracy Chapter 5: Reconstructing the Woman Question Chapter 6: Unresolved Questions Epilogue: New Women, New Questions in 1893 Notes Index

Leslie Butler's Consistent Democracy provides a sweeping intellectual history of the American idea of democracy, with women's claim to inclusion at its center. The author ranges gracefully over nineteenth-century thinkers and writersâwhite and black, male and female, for and against women's equal citizenship. Well-known figures like John Stuart Mill sit alongside less familiar democratic 'querists' like Frances Watkins Harper. With this book, it will no longer be possible to consider the development of American democracy without thinking about women

"Leslie Butler's Consistent Democracy provides a sweeping intellectual history of the American idea of democracy, with women's claim to inclusion at its center. The author ranges gracefully over nineteenth-century thinkers and writersâwhite and black, male and female, for and against women's equal citizenship. Well-known figures like John Stuart Mill sit alongside less familiar democratic 'querists' like Frances Watkins Harper. With this book, it will no longer be possible to consider the development of American democracy without thinking about women" -- Ellen Carol DuBois, University of California, Los Angeles "In Consistent Democracy, Leslie Butler powerfully recasts the history of American democracy. With deep research and penetrating analysis, she reveals how women were not peripheral but central to extensive thought and debate over the United States' political order in its most formative period. Elegantly written, this book should become required reading for all those with a stake in democracy's future." -- Kyle G. Volk, author of Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy "Leslie Butler returns readers to a nineteenth century in which disputes over what it meant to make democracy consistent took nothing for granted, showing us how questions about women raised questions about self-government itself. Drawing on a wide range of sources and sparkling with insights, this timely book is a must-read for historians of democracy as idea and practice, as well as for anyone concerned about the fate of government that is of, for, and by all of the people." -- W. Caleb McDaniel, author of Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America

Selling point: By looking at "published opinion" this work situates reformers' ideas in a broader, more combative culture Selling point: Shows that discussions over women's role in the polity were vital to the theory and practice of nineteenth-century democracy Selling point: Breaks down the category of "woman" to address enslaved and free; white and non-white, and single and married women