Mary Wollstonecraft
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
"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.