When was feminism born--in the 1960s, or in the 1660s? For England, one might answer: the early decades of the seventeenth century. James I was King of England, and women were expected to be chaste, obedient, subordinate, and silent. Some, however, were not, and these are the women who interest Barbara Lewalski--those who, as queens and petitioners, patrons and historians, and poets took up the pen to challenge and subvert the repressive patriarchal...