Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives: Women in American History (Human Tradition in America)

Rating:
Summary: Capsule biographies of everyday women
Review: Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives is Part 1 of the Human Tradition series, and provides capsule biographies of everyday women from a variety of ethnic, geographic and economic backgrounds in American society past to present. Major topics are thus enhanced by these biographical backgrounds, which reveal ordinary women who made extraordinary impacts on daily living.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended for women's history & issues collections.
Review: Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives reveals how the place and role of women in American society has evolved from Colonial times to the present day. Arranged in chronological order, sketches provide an excellent and informative introduction to both the contrasts and continuities of American women's experiences through almost four hundred years including such themes as women's rights, suffrage, education, health, "women's liberation", relations between the sexes, and marriage. Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives is a superb anthology of seventeen outstanding essays which range from Marla Miller's Rebecca Dicion (1738-1815): A Life Alone in the Early Republic; to Helen Desse's Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912): Transcendental Activist; to Margaret Breashers' Gertrude Osterhout (1862-1920): I Am Independent; to Paula Barnes' Betty Flanagan Bumpers (b. 1925): An Ordinary Mother Dedicated to Peace. Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives is highly recommended for academic and community library women's history, studies, and issues collections.