"Delap's chapters compose a journey through time and space more circular than linear—a carousel ride in which the ups and downs are as much a part of the trip as the forward movement. . . . [She] offer[s] fascinating snapshots from an astonishing archive of academic studies. . . . Each chapter finds its own path geographically and temporally—composing a pageant that runs from the speculum to the hijab, from the German League for the Protection of Motherhood to Radicalesbians, from breaking windows to singing, from bloomers to zines. Delap is not only applauding, however. She means to write a critical history, and assesses the gains and disadvantages of various methods and strategies, quite aware that projects of feminist intent do not ipso facto vanquish inequalities imposed by class, race, colonialism, or citizenship status. Some women's dreams are nightmares for others. . . . Delap examines several such sobering incidents to encourage contemporary and future feminists to be wary of repeating past mistakes."

New York Review of Books

"In this history Lucy Delap, a historian at Cambridge University, analyses the lives and work of feminist activists and writers, including many of those in Ms Dawson’s anthology. Rather than taking a chronological approach, Ms Delap organises her book by themes, such as the 'dreams' feminists have, the 'spaces' they make and the 'actions' they take. The book pays particular attention to movements in which activists participated, such as those advocating socialism or anti-colonialism. Another focus is differences of opinion and background and instances of discrimination within the feminist movement itself. Ms Delap also discusses feminist men."

Economist

"Magisterial. . . . Brilliantly surveys three centuries of activism across multiple continents."

History Today, Books of the Year 2020

"This outstanding work . . . takes a thematic approach to the topic of global feminist history to provide a unified vision that maintains appropriate nuance. . . . It's masterful."

Jana Byars | New Books in Gender Studies

"Delap offers a new and wide-ranging account of the global history of feminisms, drawing on an innovative range of sources to explore the rich, diverse and radical roots of feminist movements across time and space. Addressing the powerful contributions of feminisms while also examining their limitations, exclusions and complicities, this book is a triumph of feminist historiography that shows the innumerable different ways of imagining women’s freedom around the world. . . . We are taken on a journey that includes figures and events that would not have been classified as feminist at the time of their occurrence, stretching from colonial West Africa to Imperial Japan, and through an innovative use of source material ranging from political pamphlets to zines and songs. . . . In its interconnected narrative, [her book is] a powerful political argument about what feminism is (or should be). And indeed, as her title reminds us, feminism has never just been one thing. There were, and remain, innumerable different ways of imagining women’s freedom around the world. Far too many to be reduced to a slogan on a t-shirt."

LSE Review of Books

"The big, global story of the many feminisms on our planet today. . . . This is a fantastic book [that] everyone should go check out. . . . Even feminists I know who have been studying feminism for a very long time would get a lot out of this book. This really is an incredible work."

This Is Hell!

"Delap recognizes the feminists who were lost in the relaying of the history of the women’s movement or who were prevented from joining it in the first place. . . . Feminisms provides insight into the concept itself and provides the opportunity to address the complexity of the feminist movement, the fragmentation within feminism attributable to its visibly western-centric perspective, and the experiences of forgotten and ignored feminists. The book adds to the discourse on social construction and highlights the significance of inclusion and the corresponding bias that results with the adoption of a single perspective. Outside of the discussion of feminism, Delap’s thematic approach is a reminder that there are more voices than the ones being heard; this is a lesson in itself."

Journal of International Women's Studies

"A sweeping challenge to feminist histories . . . . It provides a nuanced account that recognizes feminism's deep fragmentations as well as its racial, gendered, and classed hierarchies. . . . The book's main contribution to critical global and transnational feminist histories is that it unearths patterns of feminism in creative, often unexpected ways. . . . Feminisms successfully disrupts the existing historiography. Ultimately, Delap's thematic, non-chronological approach to feminisms opens up creative new starting points for further research and exploration."

H-Soz-Kult

"A truly global history, dealing with 250 years of feminisms. . . . This path-breaking book is an essential read. . . . Delap's understanding of feminisms around the world offers fascinating insights, based on innovative sources, establishing this volume as a landmark work in the current historiography, and one that is both accessible to the experts in the field and inspiring for a broader audience."

Reviews in History

“An impressive attempt to dissect the complexity of feminist pasts.”
 

Gender Security Project

"This is an extraordinary and beautiful history of the global struggles against the injustices of gender. It brings the battles of feminists to life, not only through their ideas and campaigns, but also their dreams, songs, anger, and the material dimensions of their activism—their bloomers, badges, and veils, their refuges, workplaces, and borderlands."

Hannah Dawson, King's College London

"Delap wields the concept of feminism to show how activists 'politicize the injustices of gender' across 250 years and six continents. Attentive to the blind spots and complicities of many feminist ventures, she also recognizes its affinities and resonance across generations, geographies, and genders. This brilliant book probes feminism's meanings and materializations through chapters on dreams, feelings, objects, and songs as well as ideas, looks, spaces, and actions."

Nancy A. Hewitt, author of Radical Friend: Amy Kirby Post and Her Activist Worlds

“Delap provides a concise but thorough history of the variety of feminist movements that have formed over the last century, bringing a sense of shared vision and voice to a diverse history without forcing a false unity.”

Carla Jones, University of Colorado Boulder

"Delap's telling is unique amongst histories of feminism. As it tears across the globe, Feminisms reveals familiar organizations, projects, agitators, and obstacles in new garb and places them alongside ones conventionally overlooked. Start with any chapter and savor every generous, undogmatic page."

Bonnie G. Smith, Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Emerita of History, Rutgers University

"A brilliant work of feminist scholarship that is global in scope, rigorous in analysis, and inviting in its storytelling."

Hyaeweol Choi, author of Gender Politics at Home and Abroad: Protestant Modernity in Colonial-Era Korea

"Lucy Delap’s Feminisms: A Global History offers an intriguing new approach to the study of feminist theories and practices by focusing its eight chapters on a series of topics that include dreams, ideas, spaces, objects, looks, feelings, actions, and songs. . . Historians of any single national tradition are sure to learn from Delap’s examples of the work that feminism has done in so many other national traditions."

The Journal of Modern History

"This magnificent history widens the entire field of feminist studies and employs a uniquely creative format to do so. Lucy Delap, eager to overcome the exclusively white and Euro-American sources of previous accounts, has used persons and sources from throughout the world to narrate this saga. Employing a thematic approach rather than a chronological one, she is able to overcome the limitations and biases of past histories. This tactic also enables her to show the connections and influences among both disparate regions and time periods. She accurately surveys the last 250 years of women’s activism. Feminisms:
A Global History successfully remakes an
entire field of study."

Comparativ