Ungodly Women: Gender and the First Wave of American Fundamentalism (Three Indispensable Studies of American Evangelicalism) [Paperback]

Betty A. DeBerg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Three Indispensable Studies of American Evangelicalism | Publication Date: November 1, 2000

Since the rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s, analysis of American fundamentalism has neglected a large body of literature about gender roles and social conventions. In 1990, Betty A. DeBerg's groundbreaking study filled that important gap, analyzing the roots and character of fundamentalism in light of rapid changes and severe disruptions in gender-role ideology and actual social behavior in America between 1880 and 1930. Since then, Ungodly Women: Gender and the First Wave of American Fundamentalism has remained the standard source on the subject. Unlike other interpreters who have seen the contemporary Religious Right's concerns over feminism, abortion, and the breakdown of the family as recent developments, DeBerg convincingly argues that these concerns were central in the "first wave of American fundamentalism." Ungodly Women is essential reading for all interested in Women’s History, Fundamentalism, and American Religion.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Advance Praise for Ungodly Women:

"[Betty DeBerg's] focus on early fundamentalist concerns to preserve Victorian family values and sexual mores helps round out our understanding of the dynamics of the early movement and its continuities with recent fundamentalism."—George Marsden, University of Notre Dame

"DeBerg's 1990 work announced with clarity what the primary sources had long been trumpeting, if scholars had only noticed that the rise of American fundamentalism was inextricably tied to men's anxieties about retaining their dominant status over women. No book has ever shown with greater precision (or volume) of documentation just how thoroughly saturated with gender concerns the literature of early fundamentalism was.... Ungodly Women is today what it was at its original publication in 1990: the best examination of gender and fundamentalism ever written."—Valarie Ziegler, DePauw University

From the Inside Flap

As regards both academic historians and popular understandings since the rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s, analysis of American fundamentalism has neglected a large body of literature about gender roles and social conventions. Betty A. DeBerg's groundbreaking study fills that important gap, analyzing the roots and character of fundamentalism in light of rapid changes and severe disruptions in gender-role ideology and actual social behavior in American between 1880 and 1930. Unlike interpreters such as George Marsden—who has seen the contemporary Religious Right's concerns over feminism, abortion, and the breakdown of the family as recent developments—DeBerg convincingly argues that these concerns were central in the "first wave of American fundamentalism."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Mercer University Press (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865547114
• ISBN-13: 978-0865547117
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Need To Know, March 17, 2004

By 

Barbara G. Mcgarey (Duncan, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ungodly Women: Gender and the First Wave of American Fundamentalism (Paperback)

Not long ago I referenced this book to a student as a book that had to be read as part of her Seminary training. It remains the best way to address the ongoing issues of women's place and American religion--

Betty DeBerg's writing continues to be a well formed, documented, and written book reminding us what gender/fundamentalism looks like here. We are all to ready to point with judgement to these issues in other countries and ignore what is present even now here in the U.S.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The role gender and social conventions play, February 27, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ungodly Women: Gender and the First Wave of American Fundamentalism (Three Indispensable Studies of American Evangelicalism) (Paperback)

Betty DeBerg's Ungodly Women: Gender And The First Wave Of American Fundamentalism is a seminal, ground-breaking examination of the role gender and social conventions play in framing religious fundamentalism in America between 1880 and 1930. Ungodly Women is a highly recommended, exceptionally well researched and presented, scholarly and informative treatise that would be a welcome addition to any American history, women's studies, popular culture, and religious studies reading list or curriculum supplement.