Neil Keeble 
The Cultural Identity of Seventeenth-Century Woman 
A Reader

This anthology brings together extracts from a wide variety of seventeenth-century sources to illustrate the ways in which the cultural notion of `women” was then constructed. historical circumstances of women”s lives in the seventeenth century and the cultural notions of `woman” which prevailed then.

What did women and men think women should be?

Over 200 extracts from books, pamphlets, diaries and letters are arranged under three main headings: female nature, character and behaviour; female roles and affairs; and `feminisms.” Each chapter is introduced by N.H. Keeble who contextualises the extracts and draws out the main issues revised.