Review: America's womenEditorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsIlluminating cultural history of American women from the first colonists to the present day. New York Times editorial page editor Collins (Scorpion Tongues, 1998) has turned a veritable mountain of research into an exceptionally readable, lively account of the contradictions and conflicts that have shaped women's roles in the US. Her central theme is "the tension between the yearning to create a home and the urge to get out of it." Both sexes, she states, have accepted mixed messages about women's proper role, and our history is full of about-faces on the subject. In an anecdote-laden text often relying on diaries and other contemporary records, she recounts how colonial women were not just housewives, midwives, and innkeepers, but religious dissidents (Anne Hutchinson) and Indian fighters (Hannah Dustin). During the Revolution, some donned men's clothing and joined the army, but more traveled with their soldier husbands, doing the cooking and washing, or stayed home and ran the family farm. Juliette Brier, who walked 100 miles through Death Valley carrying one child on her back and another in her arms while leading a third, epitomizes the endurance and spirit of pioneer women. But it's not all heroics and hardship. Collins fills her pages with fascinating details of everyday life over four centuries, including how women dressed, managed personal hygiene, and raised children. The roles they played in the temperance, abolition, and suffrage movements, the effects of the Civil War on southern women, white and black, the lives of 19th-century immigrant women are all explored. Collins shows how women, kept out of the workplace during the Depression, were brought into it by necessity during WWII. Their retreat to the home in the '50s, the subsequent sexual revolution, and the rise of feminism may be more familiar dramas than the earlier history, but the details are no less absorbing. Informative and entertaining, full of vivid stories that reveal not only what women were doing but how they felt about it. Review: America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesEditorial Review - Bookreporter.com - Brandon MForget Hillary Clinton, Madonna, Queen Latifah, and Diane Sawyer. Today's media magnets are nothing compared to the forthright ladies and rustic women who helped create the United States of America. The names we should know are Eleanor Dare, Temperance Flowerdew, the Brent sisters, Mary Johnson, Susan Blunt, Eliza Lucas, Phillis Wheatley, Deborah Sampson Gannett, Sarah Hale, Katy Ferguson, Maria ... Read full review User reviewsReview: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - Melanie - GoodreadsThis book manages to be both an informative work of historical non-fiction AND a page-turner. Gail Collins is a miracle-worker. This is exactly the type of book that should be assigned as summer ... Read full review Review: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - Elise - GoodreadsThis book is amazing. I learned so much. Should really be required reading for all people interested in American history, and probably the best way to ensure that would be for everyone to give this ... Read full review Review: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - April - GoodreadsGreat short stories with real life examples of America's women Read full review Review: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - Sarah - GoodreadsJust ok, was missing some sort of spark though. Read full review Review: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - Jenny - GoodreadsGail Collins at her best. It seemed ambitious to cover the history of women from pilgrims to today, but she she made it work. lots of great stories and anecdotes. I think if everyone wrote history in ... Read full review Review: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - Linnea Laffoon - Goodreadsthis book has good general information, not too much depth though, at least not as much as I desire. Read full review Review: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - Angie - Goodreadsvery good, very informative, but history is always painstakingly difficult for me to read....lol Read full review Review: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and HeroinesUser Review - Vivian Valvano - GoodreadsGail Collins takes you galloping from colonial times to 2000. It's fun to pick and choose what you're interested in, and Collins has a terrific sense of humor without minimizing the travails of the ... Read full review | User ratings| 5 stars | | | 4 stars | | | 3 stars | | | 2 stars | | | 1 star | |
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