Cover of A vindication of the rights of men, in a letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

A vindication of the rights of men, in a letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

by Mary Wollstonecraft

Reading level
Fairly demanding
Price
Free

About the book

"A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France" by Mary Wollstonecraft is a political pamphlet written in 1790. This fierce response attacks Edmund Burke's defense of monarchy and aristocracy, becoming the first salvo in a pamphlet war over the French Revolution. Wollstonecraft dismantles hereditary privilege and Burke's gendered rhetoric, advocating instead for republicanism and middle-class virtue. Her unabashedly feminist critique challenges a society built on women's passivity, contrasting Enlightenment progress with Burke's reliance on tradition.

  • France
  • Liberty
  • Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797. Reflections on the revolution in France
  • Human rights

Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #62757. A vindication of the rights of men, in a letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke on Wikipedia.

More free books by Mary Wollstonecraft

About Mary Wollstonecraft