Arianne Chernock is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Boston University. Her first book, Men and the Making of Modern British Feminism (2010), was awarded the John Ben Snow Prize by the North American Conference on British Studies. She frequently contributes to print, television and radio outlets.

'How did, could, and should women hold political power? Arianne Chernock ingeniously probes invocations and imaginings of Queen Victoria to deliver an entirely fresh account of British women's rights. This elegant, perceptive book will be as valuable for historians of the Victorian era as it is resonant for anyone interested in how sovereignty and political activism work.' Maya Jasanoff, Harvard University, Massachusetts

• List of figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction: a mad, wicked folly?; 1. The radicalism of female rule in eighteenth-century Britain; 2. 'An argument of a very popular character': Queen Victoria in the early women's movement, c. 1832–76; 3. Rethinking the 'right to rule' in Victorian Britain; 4. The anti-suffragists' Queen; 5. 'No more fitting commemoration'?: Reclaiming Victoria for the women's movement during the Golden and Diamond Jubilees; Conclusion: Queen Victoria versus the suffragettes: the politics of queenship in Edwardian Britain; A note on sources; Bibliography; Index.

Arianne Chernock is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Boston University. Her first book, Men and the Making of Modern British Feminism (2010), was awarded the John Ben Snow Prize by the North American Conference on British Studies. She frequently contributes to print, television and radio outlets.

'How did, could, and should women hold political power? Arianne Chernock ingeniously probes invocations and imaginings of Queen Victoria to deliver an entirely fresh account of British women's rights. This elegant, perceptive book will be as valuable for historians of the Victorian era as it is resonant for anyone interested in how sovereignty and political activism work.' Maya Jasanoff, Harvard University, Massachusetts

• List of figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction: a mad, wicked folly?; 1. The radicalism of female rule in eighteenth-century Britain; 2. 'An argument of a very popular character': Queen Victoria in the early women's movement, c. 1832–76; 3. Rethinking the 'right to rule' in Victorian Britain; 4. The anti-suffragists' Queen; 5. 'No more fitting commemoration'?: Reclaiming Victoria for the women's movement during the Golden and Diamond Jubilees; Conclusion: Queen Victoria versus the suffragettes: the politics of queenship in Edwardian Britain; A note on sources; Bibliography; Index.