Christabel Pankhurst: Fundamentalism and Feminism in Coalition

Christabel Pankhurst, one of the leading champions of women's suffrage in Britain, entered the evangelical world after the first world war as a preacher of the second coming. Larsen shows that the two causes, far from being automatically antagonistic, could be complementary.Christabel Pankhurst was arguably the most influential member of her famous family in the struggle to win the vote for women in the years before the First World War. Paradoxically, she has also been the most neglected subsequentlyby historians. Part of the reason for this may be that, in the years after women's suffrage had been achieved in 1918, she turned her energies to Christian fundamentalism and carved out a new career as a writer of best-selling evangelical books and as a high-profile speaker on the fundamentalist preaching circuit, particularly in the United States. In this important work Tim Larsen provides the first full account of this part of Christabel Pankhurst's life. He thus offers both a highly original contribution to Christabel Pankhurst's biography and also a fascinating commentary on the relationship between fundamentalism and feminism. His book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the Pankhursts, in the history of the women's movement, or in fundamentalism in Britain and North America. TIMOTHY LARSEN is Associate Professor of Theology, Wheaton College, USA.

[The book] reveals a nuanced picture [and] is evidently the product of considerable research. In raising the complex relationship between feminism and fundamentalist Christianity, Larsen has identified issues of central importance to scholars of both feminist history and religious studies., Larsen restores a more understandable version of Christable Pankhurst in her later incarnation...and equips future biographers to explore more sensitively the personal and political connections between her suffragist and her Adventist years., Shed[s] light on a significant woman...who has not received the attention she obviously deserves.

TIMOTHY LARSEN is Professor of Church History, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto.