Well-read lives : how books inspired a generation of American women /

Well-Read Lives is a beautifully crafted monograph by an emeritus professor of American institutions and values on the effect that reading had on the lives of women in the generation following the Civil War. Sicherman's thesis is that reading gave young women a vehicle for exploring feelings and identities unavailable to them in the private sphere. Through reading, which occurred individually and collectively (e.g., study clubs, families reading together), young women began to consider avenues for accomplishment outside the home, and many women followed these impulses to their logical conclusions by becoming educators and social reformers. Sicherman (emer., Trinity College) follows a case-study approach, which she suggests is crucial to understanding the relationship between readers and texts. Chapters are organized around the various case studies, which include responses of native-born upper-class women and Jewish immigrant women to the novel Little Women; efforts of less privileged women to attain literacy; an extended, mainly female family in Indiana, members of which later became distinguished in the public sphere; a Quaker who later became a college president; and Jane Addams, founder of Hull House. Sicherman's work is well documented, with extensive notes and an excellent bibliography. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. L. K. Speer Southeast Missouri State University