Named an Outstanding Academic Book for 1997 by CHOICE. Out of the Shadows demonstrates the importance of the role of women in the French Revolution. It traces the growth of female political awareness and depicts the determination of women of the working class to participate in the life of the new nation despite their government's obstinate denial of the rights of citizenship. The author examines in detail the grassroots involvement of women in the affairs of the country right up until the avalanche of repressive legislation passed in the spring of 1795.

The Author: Shirley Elson Roessler received her doctorate in modern European history from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada in 1991. Her fields of expertise include the history of France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with particular emphasis on the era of the French Revolution. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in the University of Alberta's Department of History and Classics.