Description
Book SynopsisOffers a nuanced account of the multiple aspects of women's lives and their roles in American society
American Women''s History presents a comprehensive survey of women''s experience in the U.S. and North America from pre-European contact to the present. Centering women of color and incorporating issues of sexuality and gender, this student-friendly textbook draws from cutting-edge scholarship to provide a more inclusive and complicated perspective on the conventional narrative of U.S. women's history. Throughout the text, the authors highlight diverse voices such as Matoaka (Pocahontas), Hilletie van Olinda, Margaret Sanger, and Annelle Ponder.
Arranged chronologically, American Women''s History explores the major turning points in American women's history while exploring various contexts surrounding race, work, politics, activism, and the construction of self. Concise chapters cover a uniquely wide range of topics, such as the roles of Indigenous women i
Table of Contents
Brief Introduction ix
Part I
Maeve Kane
1 Sky Woman, Dawnland, Turtle Island 3
Studying the Past 4
Creation 5
Peopling of the Americas 7
The Spread of Maize 9
Interpreting Cahokia 11
Jigonsaseh and the Founding 13
Chaco and Pueblo 14
Near the Rocks and Seagulls 16
Conclusion 17
Bibliography 17
2 Settling and Unsettling, 1492–1600 18
Early Encounters 18
“Virgin” Landscapes 22
Gender, Slavery, and the Creation of Race 24
Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 27
Conclusion 29
Bibliography 30
3 Growth and Disruption, 1600–1690 31
Creating Race 32
Race and Reproduction 34
Legislating Race 36
Good Wives and Disruptive Women 38
Gender and Social Order 41
Gender and Legal Rights 44
Conclusion 45
Bibliography 46
4 Atlantic Connections, 1690–1750 47
Gender and Warfare 48
Salem Witch Trials 50
Intermarriage and Intermediaries 52
Women and the Atlantic World of Goods 54
Conclusion 56
Bibliography 56
5 Rebellion and Revolution, 1750–1800 58
Resistance Before Revolution 59
Women’s Land and Women’s Lives 60
Gender and Liberty 61
Remember the Ladies 62
Cannons Roaring 64
The Society of Patriotic Ladies 66
A War Against Vegetables 67
Infant Liberty Nursed by Mother Mob 69
Conclusion 72
Bibliography 72
Part II
Vanessa M. Holden
6 Expansion and Division: The Women’s Market Revolution, 1800–1820s 75
Maria Stewart: Women of Color, Activism, and the Rising Middle Class 76
A Land- Based Empire: Women’s Migrations 78
Migrations and the Women’s Market Economy: Feminine Ideals, Domestic Labor, and Wage Labor Opportunities 79
Making the South: Southern Women and Planter Migration 82
Making the North: European Immigration and Women’s Labor 84
The West and Far West: Imagining Empire on Indigenous Lands 85
Conclusion 85
Bibliography 86
7 Reform, Revolt, and Women’s Rights, 1830s–1860s 87
Competing Womanhoods: Middle- Class Women and Emerging Definitions of Womanhood 88
Reform and Imperial Aims: Women and “Civilizing” Missions 92
Indigenous Women Strategize for Survival: Violence and Indian Removal 94
Regions Drift Apart: Womanhood, Labor, and Regionalism 96
Class Relations and Women’s Activism: Constructing a Deserving Poor 99
Conclusion 102
Bibliography 102
8 Disunion, 1850–1860 104
The Dred Scott Decision: Women’s Intimate Lives, Marriage, and American’s Crisis over Slavery 105
From the Margins to the Center: Abolitionism and Women’s Activism in the Antebellum Period 107
The Crisis of 1850, Women in the West, and Women’s Activism 110
Conclusion 112
Bibliography 113
9 The Civil War: Women’s Homefronts and Battlefields 114
Harriet Tubman: Foot Soldier of Emancipation and War Veteran 114
1861: The Beginning 115
Bloody Realities 117
1862: A War for Emancipation 118
Escalating Casualties and Advances in Sanitation 119
1863: Battlefields and Homefronts 120
Joining the Fight: Soldiers with Female Bodies 122
1864: Women Face Hard War 123
1865: Emancipation, Lincoln’s Assassination, and Reunion 124
Conclusion 125
Bibliography 125
10 Reconstruction and the Rise of Jane Crow 127
The Emancipation Generation 128
Fighting for Freedom: An Era of Hope and Promise 129
Reform and Reconstruction: Women’s Rights and African American Civil Rights Clash 133
Creating an Old South to Build a New South: Southern Women 135
New Waves of Immigration: New Americans, Old Prejudices, and the Era of Chinese Exclusion 136
Conclusion: Freedom Dream Deferred and the Gradual Arrival of Jane Crow 139
Bibliography 140
Part III
Melissa E. Blair 143
11 New Women: 1890–1920 145
African American Women’s Activism, 1890s–1920 146
Marriage, Children, and Family Life 148
Women and Work at the Turn of the Century 150
The Progressive Movement 152
The Final Path to Women’s Suffrage 155
Bibliography 158
12 Women Between the Wars, 1920–1945 160
Work, Family, and Sexuality in the 1920s 161
After Suffrage: Women’s Politics in the 1920s 164
The Great Depression 167
World War II 170
Bibliography 173
13 The Long Fifties, 1945–65 175
The Civil Rights Movement 176
Babies, Suburbs, and Politics: White Middle- Class Lives 180
Sexuality and the Cold War 183
Women and Work in an Age of Abundance 186
Bibliography 188
14 Changes Everywhere, 1965–1980 190
Feminism and Structural Change 191
Black Feminism, Chicana Feminism, and Race- Based Organizing 196
Demographics of Women’s Lives in the 1970s: Family Change and Economic Collapse 200
Women and the Rise of the New Right 201
Bibliography 203
15 Women in Contemporary America, 1980–2020 205
The Fights Continue: Gay Rights and Abortion Rights 206
Daily Life at the Turn of the Century: Work, Immigration, and Family 209
Partisan Politics and Grassroots Activism 213
Popular Culture at the Turn of the Century: Contradictory Images of Women 217
Bibliography 219
Index 221
