Women Letter Writers in the Early Modern Period

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Historians face an enormous challenge finding documents that tell the stories of women in times past. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor James Daybell. His extensive research into women’s letters reveal much about their education, literacy, political aspirations and sense of self in the Early Modern period.

The Senior Producer was Elena Guthrie. It was edited by Anisha Deva and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you have picked up a copy of What Is History Now, which I edited with Helen Carr,
0:10.2	or my book The Voices of Neme, you will know that I passionately believe that we must
0:15.6	restore women to history.
0:17.9	In the 1970s, women's history began, as it were, telling the stories of high profile
0:23.8	women, women worthies.
0:25.8	And in the 1980s, historians began looking for everyday women.
0:30.2	But since history, as a discipline relies largely, albeit not exclusively on documents,
0:36.8	historians have faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge in recovering women's lives, comparatively
0:42.9	few documents by women or about women survive.
0:46.9	So whilst we might have hoped for a speedy redress of women's absences in history, the
0:51.7	process over the last 50 years has faced this great challenge.
0:57.8	Nevertheless, today's guest has been a pioneer in restoring women and their words to the
1:02.7	record.
1:03.7	He is Professor James Debel, and his first book, Women Letter Writers, is a wonderful example
1:10.0	of how to access women's lives.
1:13.0	Painstakingly piecing together an archive of some 3000 documents which took him from
1:17.5	country houses in England to archives in the USA.
1:22.2	Professor Debel has completed one of the most comprehensive studies of women's letters
1:25.9	and letter writing during the early modern period so far.
1:29.8	Today, we will hear what we can learn from these letters about women's education and literacy,
1:36.2	about their political aspirations and their sense of self.
1:40.6	James Debel is currently Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of
	...

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