Lerner, Gerda. The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History. 1979. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. 176 pp.

In "Why History Matters," Gerda Lerner writes, "What we remember, what we stress as significant, and what we omit of our past defines our present" (200). This quotation helps explain the importance of the recent reprinting, with a new foreword by Linda K. Kerber, of Lerner's 1979 collection The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History. Although there have been numerous developments and achievements in all areas of women's studies, the kind of patriarchal bias Lerner draws attention to in the field of history remains far too prevalent in many academic conversations in 2008. For example, as a feminist rhetorician, I am reminded that feminist rhetorical studies is still a marginalized area of study in rhetoric and composition, and despite important scholarship by black women like Shirley Wilson Logan and Jacqueline Jones Royster, it remains largely dominated by white women scholars. More generally, the reprinting of this collection is an important text for both students new to feminist studies and seasoned scholars. First, it offers students an accessible view of the past of women's history, a way into understanding the need for such study, and an introduction to some of the issues white and black women faced in the nineteenth century. The volume could be used in the context of a feminist history course, nineteenth-century American literature course, or Introduction to Women's Studies. Second, seasoned scholars gain an opportunity to reflect on the emergence of women's history in light of present methods of study and perspectives in women's history and women's studies in general. Because our past helps create our present, this text serves as part of the history of women's history and contributes to conversations about the ongoing need to theorize and create methodologies that continue to resist patriarchal bias in history and other disciplines.