Breaking the Mold of Citizenship: The "Natural" Person as Citizen in Nineteenth-Century America (A Fragment)

Authors

Elizabeth B. Clark

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

12-13-2001

Abstract

Mary Wollstronecraft once said, probably with a sigh, "I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behavior." Two centuries later, many groups in American political life are still caught in the same dilemma: hoping that a just society will take account of an essential characteristic -- race and sex spring to mind -- in ways that will benefit the group, while eschewing the potentially harmful characterizations that lie just on the flip side of the coin.

Comments

Edited posthumously by Katherine Stone, Dirk Hartog, and Sarah Gordon.

Recommended Citation

Elizabeth B. Clark, Breaking the Mold of Citizenship: The "Natural" Person as Citizen in Nineteenth-Century America (A Fragment), in Cultural Pluralism, Identity Politics, and the Law 27 (eds. Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns, 2001).