Gerda Lerner Book order (chronological)

Tells a story of moral courage and commitment to social change with a novelist's skill and a historian's command of context. This memoir focuses on the formative experiences that made the author an activist for social justice before her academic career began. It presents her life in the context of the major historical events of the 20th century.

In dieser Pionierarbeit zur Frauengeschichte schildert Gerda Lerner den langen Kampf der Frauen um ein eigenes Denken, eine eigene Geschichte und ein eigenes Bewußtsein. In einem breiten Spektrum werden die verschiedenen Wege nachgezeichnet, die Frauen eingeschlagen haben um die patriarchalen Beschränkungen zu überwinden, neue Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten und eigene Freiräume zu finden.

In "Why History Matters", Lerner sums up her thinking and research of the last 16 years, combining personal reminiscences with innovative theory that illuminates the importance of history and the vital role women have played in it. "Lerner has set a standard that few of her fellow scholars will ever match".--John Demos, "The New York Times Book Review".

This history of feminism sweeps over more than 1000 years of Western history, discussing such topics as the educational disadvantages faced by women, the role of women mystics, the concept of motherhood as a means of female bonding, creative literary women and the struggle for equal education.

Recipient of the 2002 Bruce Catton Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Historical Writing. In this “stunning collection of documents” ( ), African-American women speak of themselves, their lives, ambitions, and struggles from the colonial period to the present day. Theirs are stories of oppression and survival, of family and community self-help, of inspiring heroism and grass-roots organizational continuity in the face of racism, economic hardship, and, far too often, violence. Their vivid accounts, their strong and insistent voices, make for inspiring reading, enriching our understanding of the American past. “A very timely and powerful collection which gives emphasis to the magnificent role of Black women in the struggle of Black people to survive in this, the United States,”—Nathan Irvin Huggins “Gerda Lerner has collected . . . material which can change images that whites have had of Blacks, and possibly even those which we, as Blacks, have of ourselves,”—Maya Angelou

In this radically fresh view of the history of Western civilization, the author argues that male dominance is not natural or biological (and hence unchangeable), but a product of historical development.