Restrictions to Access

Boxes 30-35 are CLOSED until 2068.

Box 42 is CLOSED until 2077.

Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Papers #4851, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Elizabeth Fox-Genovese of Atlanta, Ga., 1996-2007 (Acc. 96177, 96189, 97016, 97104, 98189, 98468, 99024, 99109, 100668, 100793); and from William Hungeling in 2019 (Acc. 103671).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Library Staff, October 2001 and March 2002; Amanda Ross, December 2007

Encoded by: Amanda Ross, December 2007

Revisions by: Anne Wells, Andrew Crook, and Nancy Kaiser, August 2019

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the processing of this collection and the encoding of this finding aid.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Catholic converts--United States.
• Catholics--United States.
• Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina--Trials, litigation, etc.
• Conservatism--United States--History--20th century.
• Conservatives--United States.
• Diaries.
• Feminism--United States--History--20th century.
• Feminists--United States--History--20th century.
• Fox family.
• Fox, Edward Whiting, Jr.
• Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth, 1941-2007.
• Genovese family.
• Genovese, Eugene D., 1930-
• Gould, Virginia Meacham.
• Historians--United States--History--20th century.
• History--Study and teaching (Higher)--United States.
• Sex discrimination in education--United States.
• Sexual harassment in universities and colleges--United States.
• Single-sex schools--United States.
• Virginia Military Institute--Trials, litigation, etc.
• Women college teachers--United States--History--20th century.
• Women historians--United States--History--20th century.
• Women--United States--Diaries.

• Fox and Simon Family Papers #5363, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese was a white feminist, author, and professor of women's studies and history who was known for her evolution from Marxist-leaning secularist to Roman Catholic and vocal presence in the conservative women's movement.

Fox-Genovese, known as "Bestey," was born in Boston on 28 May 1941 to prominent historian Edward Whiting Fox and Elizabeth "Betty" Simon Fox, daughter of real estate mogel Robert Simon. Betsey studied at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and attended Bryn Mawr College, receiving a B.A. in French and history in 1963. Pursuing graduate degrees in history at Harvard University, she earned a master's degree in 1966 and a Ph.D. in 1974. In 1969, at the age of 28, Betsey married Eugene Genovese, a white historian and author.

Fox-Genovese taught at University of Rochester (N.Y.), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and the State University of New York at Binghamton prior to her appointment as Eleonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. In 1986, she founded the Institute for Women's Studies at Emory, acting as its director until 1991.

Fox-Genovese's early writings focused on French history and translations, including The Origins of Physiocracy: Economic Revolution and Social Order in Eighteenth-Century France , published in 1976. She later wrote extensively on southern women, slavery, and feminism. Her book Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (1988) received the C. Hugh Holman Prize from the Society for Southern Literature and the Julia Cherry Spruill Prize from the Southern Association for Women Historians and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In addition to her own writings, Fox-Genovese collaborated with her husband, a historian of American slavery. They co-authored several articles and two books, Fruits of Merchant Capital: Slavery and Bourgeois Property in the Rise and Expansion of Capitalism (1983) and The Mind of the Master Class: History and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders’ Worldview (2005). In 2003, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal as a "pioneer in women's studies." Fox-Genovese also authored Feminism Without Illusions: A Critique of Individualism (1991) and Feminism Is Not the Story of My Life: How Today’s Feminist Elite Has Lost Touch With the Real Concerns of Women (1995).

In 1991, L. Virginia ("Ginger") Gould, a former student and employee, sued Emory University and Fox-Genovese, sparking a public legal battle. Under Fox-Genovese, Gould served as Associate Director of the Institute for Women's Studies from August to October 1991. Gould sued Emory University and Fox-Genovese for violating her civil rights, accusing Fox-Genovese of sexual harassment and discrimination. In March 1996, Emory University settled the sexual harassment and discrimination case on the day opening statements were scheduled to begin. Fox-Genovese also participated in two other legal cases, serving as an expert witness in court cases involving the all-male admissions policies of two military academies, the Citadel and Virginia Military Institute (VMI).

Fox-Genovese held active memberships in numerous historical associations, including an elected position in the Society of American Historians. She held positions on editorial boards of several scholarly journals and served as founding editor of the Journal of the Historical Society , 1998-2005. Her lecture circuit spanned the United States, and she was frequently solicited by the press for quotes relating to gender issues.

In 1995, Fox-Genovese publicly converted to Roman Catholicism. She criticized the women's movement and rejected secular liberalism in her later speeches, interviews, and writings. In her later years, Fox-Genovese lived with multiple sclerosis. After major surgery in October 2006, her health declined, and she died on 2 January 2007.

Correspondence, writings, legal papers, diaries and planners, medical records, financial papers, photographs, data disks, audio recordings, and other materials related to the professional and personal life of historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese. Also included are early writings, correspondence, and other materials related to her husband Eugene D. Genovese.

Series 1. Correspondence includes letters chiefly received by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, greeting cards sent to Fox-Genovese and Genovese, and condolence cards received by Eugene Genovese upon Fox-Genovese's death, as well as hard copies of emails sent and received by Fox-Genovese. Correspondents include colleagues and fellow scholars, students and former advisees, friends and family. Edward W. Fox Jr., "Teddy," Fox-Genovese's brother and fellow academic, figures prominently in the email subseries. Topics of correspondence include praise and critique of the Fox-Genovese's writings and other accomplishments, solicitations for appearances, personal and professional difficulties of working in academia, requests for mentorship and assistance from former students and aspiring scholars, and personal exchanges with friends and family.

Series 2. Writings include academic works dating from Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's college years; translation work; articles, books and related materials that she authored or co-authored with her husband Eugene Genovese; commentary on those works by others; Fox-Genovese's comments on others' work; publishing contracts and permissions; and press clippings related to Fox-Genovese and her work.

Series 3. Materials related to Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's professional associations and societies and conservative causes. There are also texts of talks and lectures given by Fox-Genovese.

Series 4. Correspondence and other papers from the inception of the Journal of the Historical Society to Fox-Genovese's resignation as editor in 2005. Fox-Genovese as editor and Laura Crawley as managing editor figure prominently in issue development, article solitication and submission, and extensive editing of articles.

Series 5. Course material, syllabi, course evaluations, recommendations written by Fox-Genovese, student papers, Fox-Genovese's notes on student presentations, and materials related to the Pew Younger Scholars program.

Series 6. Legal materials document the discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Virginia Gould against Emory University and Fox-Genovese, as well as Fox-Genovese's testimony for the defense in the court battles to integrate the Citadel and Virginia Military Institute (VMI).

Series 7. Photographs center mainly on portraits of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Eugene Genovese, their friends, and Genovese family members.

Series 8. Other materials include diaries, daybooks, and daily planners kept by Fox-Genovese, 1966-1996; medical records, 2000-2006; financial papers, 2002-2004; and data disks and audio recordings on microcassette relating to Fox-Genovese's instruction, scholarship, and professional activities. Eugene Genovese's papers, chiefly 1956-1983, include his master's thesis and dissertation, correspondence, financial and legal papers, contracts, articles written by Genovese, and publications that include his early writings.

Where possible, original file folder titles have been retained.

• Audiocassettes (C-4851/1-49)