Warning: Armed Women! with Dr. Sarah Burdett

A conversation with Dr. Sarah Burdett, author of The Arms-Bearing Woman and British Theatre in the Age of Revolution, 1789–1815

At the height of the French Revolution, a new fear gripped many people in England: armed women. Scenes like the storming of the Bastille, in which women figured prominently, led to anxieties about women quitting “the quiet scenes of domestic life to riot in the scenes of blood” occurring across the English Channel.

In fact, there were already plenty of arms-bearing women in Britain — but on the stage. Dr. Sarah Burdett, returning guest from Episode 43, joins us to discuss this phenomenon and her new book, The Arms-Bearing Woman and British Theatre in the Age of Revolution, 1789–1815.