From Eve to Dawn, A History of Women in the World, Volume II: The Masculine Mystique: From Feudalism to the French Revolution

The Masculine Mystique, the second volume of Marilyn French's monumental, readable, and unprecedented history of women, analyzes and evaluates the lives of women in societies around the world between feudal times and the French Revolution.

Drawing upon fifteen years of collaboration with a team of researchers and prominent historians, the volume opens with fascinating chapters comparing medieval Europe and Japan, disparate cultures which nevertheless shared traditions of male dominated aggression and competitiveness. French then shows how, in Europe, this tradition led to colonialism and imperialism, and the horrific subjugation of indigenous societies, just as women were subjugated in the conquerors' home countries. As French makes clear in this impassioned women's history, only with the French Revolution did the political force women exerted powerfully change the course of history.