Review by Choice Review
Though monographs on individual 19th- and early-20th-century women have become common, they do not always fill the needs of undergraduates writing papers for women's history survey courses--thus the need for books like this collection of biographical essays focusing on women of the Midwest. The level of biographical detail of the essays varies depending on the primary sources available and the research interests of the authors, but this gives students an appreciation for the diversity of roles women created for themselves in a region with a reputation for religious and social conservatism. Most books on regional or state-level women's history do not give full biographies for the women covered but use extracts from their lives as examples in more general historical context. Other books on midwestern women include Joan M. Jensen, Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1850-1925 (CH, Nov'06, 44-1719), and Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith, Women in Waiting in the Westward Movement: Life on the Home Frontier (1994). A scholarly text. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduate and general collections. L. Patrick Florida State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
