American Revolution | Part 6 | Mercy Otis Warren and the female politicians (with Rosemarie Zagarri)

2026-08-08

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Mercy Otis Warren was what the Revolution called a "female politician" – a woman who cared about and discussed politics, a wholly new archetype for American society then. Her poems, plays and pamphlets – and ultimately her 3-volume history of the revolution – established her as a key political thinker of the movement for independence. But she walked a fine line: she never meant to "transgress the boundaries of (her) sex" and always thought of herself as a wife and mother first. To discuss her life and women's part in the political philosophy of the revolution, I'm joine...

Read the books
🇺🇸 Buy Rosemarie Zagarri's books in the US
A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9781118775011
Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9780812220735

🇬🇧 Buy Rosemarie Zagarri's books in the UK
A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781118775011
Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781666133929
(Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)

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On this episode:

Isabelle Roughol - Host
Rosemarie Zagarri - Guest

Click here to watch on Youtube.

Jump to:

(00:00) - Intro
(01:33) - Start of interview
(02:00) - Mercy's unusual education
(05:25) - Coming of age in the anti-British resistance
(07:59) - A rare interest in politics
(09:15) - Men's encouragement
(12:09) - "A masculine genius"
(13:45) - Warning the colonists and encouraging sacrifice
(16:50) - The quintessential female politician
(19:06) - Defending natural rights
(21:35) - Embodying, not advocating women's rights
(27:13) - The first historian of the American Revolution
(29:25) - Why she opposed the Constitution
(33:12) - Falling out with John Adams
(39:04) - Women had the right to vote in 1776 in ONE state
(43:30) - The French Revolution and the short-lived radical transatlantic conversation about women's rights
(48:16) - Outro