Why was Wollstonecraft's landmark feminist work, the Vindication of the Rights of Woman, categorised as a work of political economy when it was first published? Taking this question as a starting point, Mary Wollstonecraft and Political Economy gives a compelling new account of Wollstonecraft as critic of the material, moral, social, and psychological conditions of commercial modernity. Offering thorough analysis of Wollstonecraft's major writings - including her two Vindications, her novels, her history of the French Revolution, and her travel writing - this is the only book-length study to situate Wollstonecraft in the context of the political economic thought of her time. It shows Wollstonecraft as an economic as much as a political radical, whose critique of the emerging economic orthodoxies of her time anticipates later Romantic thinkers. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

‘[T]his is a scholarly and fascinating study. … Recommended.’

R. T. Ingoglia Source: Choice

‘Packham contributes significantly to scholarship by setting Wollstonecraft’s achievement in the context of various Enlightenment schools of 'political economy' … and suggests convincingly that the implications of Wollstonecraft’s far-seeing critique of patriarchy and property for the study of gender, race, ethnicity and politics are legion.’

Eileen M. Hunt Source: The Times Literary Supplement

‘While it resembles other research on Wollstonecraft in focusing on her writings and lived experience, Packham’s book’s specific difference is interpreting Wollstonecraft’s ideas through her engagement with debates and topics of the eighteenth-century political economy.’

Paolo Santori Source: Journal of the History of Economic Thought

‘… a compelling and incisive account of Wollstonecraft’s contributions to economic thought. It explores the philosopher’s holistic engagement with economics, from orthodox theories of property and value to the heterodox correctives of marginalised ideas … This is the most comprehensive examination of Wollstonecraft’s economic thought to date. Connecting thediffuse (and often subtle) economic ideas across Wollstonecraft’s corpus, Packham enables us to reread a major literary figure with freshened senses.’

Paul Stephens Source: The Charles and Mary Lamb Journal

‘Peckham’s book offers a valuable and well-documented reconstruction of Wollstonecraft's insights …’

Biancamaria Fontana Source: The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

‘Professor Catherine Packham chooses to take a long view of Wollstonecraft’s work by investigating the topic of political economy, woven as it is through her major publications. This is one of the undoubted strengths of the book, and provides a welcome opportunity for a much-needed longitudinal assessment of Wollstonecraft’s thinking. Political economy - including the multiple ways in which the topic was understood at the end of the eighteenth century - is an excellent vehicle for this. Packham is able to showcase not just Wollstonecraft’s willingness to engage with this newly-emerging intellectual field, but also her ability to interrogate and then re-deploy it in aways which suit her own philosophical objectives.’

Alison Daniell Source: Women's Writing