Women's America: Refocusing the Past

This is the most widely used anthology of American women's history. Organized chronologically, the book is divided into four sections which cover the span of women's experiences in the US from colonial times to the present. Each section begins with a short introduction by the editors which sums up the particular historicla era being covered and the scope of the documents which follow. The editors have carefully selected writings covering a range of aspects on the interaction of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in women's lives. Each of the roughly 90 essays and legal documents presented is prefaced with a brief headnote describing the piece's significance and historical context. This edition has been extensively revised and contains 34 new documents including several orignial essays written especially for this book. More material has been added about "anti feminist" women and about the impact of ethnicity in American culture. In addition, the bibliographic essay has been entirely rewritten to take into account the growing body of literature in the field.