Product Description

A collection of primary source documents for the American women's history course, 'Modern American Women: A Documentary History' focuses on events and developments involving women from 1890 to the present. New material includes documents on anti-lynching activism and Indian relocation, excerpts from 'The Vagina Monologues' by Eve Ensler, expanded chapters on 'Sexuality and the Body' and 'The State of the Movement for Women's Equality'. New part introductions provide historical context for and identify key themes that emerge from the documents in each of the book's three parts while headnotes, suggestions for further reading and photo essays supplement this already thorough and intimate look at women's history in the 20th century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228003 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

About the Author
Susan Ware specializes in twentieth-century U.S. history and the history of American Women. The author of 'Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism'(1993); 'Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and New Deal Politics'(1987); Holding Their Own: American Women in the 1930s'(1982); and 'Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal'(1981), Ware taught in the history department of New York University from 1986-1995 and served as an Honorary Visiting Scholar at the Schlesinger Library of Radcliffe College from 1996-1997. She is currently an independent scholar based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

good - but there are better anthologies
Susan Ware's documentary history of women in the 20th century has some great material, but very little of it is ground-breaking, and much of it is a rather narrow representation of the female experience. There are the ubiquitous documents and accounts of the Progressivism and the sufferage movement, the impact of the Great Depression and World War Two on the home, and the "birth" of feminism in the late 1950's and 1960's, through to material on the sexual revolution of the 80's. Frankly, I was a bit diasppointed.

As a history teacher, I am regularly appalled at the relative lack of attention that women in history are given. If one were to judge by the materials in this book, women have not had much influence in America. Obviliously this is not the case, hence my rating. Furthermore, women of color are not well represented, nor are the experiences of immigrants, rural women, and similar groups. Ware's anthology is primarily comprised of the experiences of white, urban women. A strength of the book are its 3 "photo essays", depicting the obstacles women faced in the workplace, at home, and in education.

In my opinion, better books on the subject are Rosalyn Baxandall's _America's Working Women_ and Gerda Lerner's _The Female Experience_.