Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41 (Women, Gender, and Sexuality in American History)

Probing behind the "wide-open
city" moniker Butte has worn so well, Mining Cultures shows
how the western city evolved from a male-dominated mining enclave to a
community in which men and women participated on a more equal basis as
leisure patterns changed and consumer culture grew.
Mary Murphy's engagingly written
book is the first serious look at how women worked and spent their leisure
time in a city dominated by men's work--mining. In bringing Butte to life,
she draws on church weeklies, high school yearbooks, holiday rituals,
movie plots, and news of local fashion, in addition to the more customary
court cases, newspapers, and interviews.
Her lively chronicle of the
growth of consumer culture in Butte is richly illustrated. It will interest
those in western and women's history, leisure and consumerism studies,
and labor and immigration history, as well as general readers.
A volume in the series
Women in American History, edited by Anne Firor Scott, Nancy A. Hewitt,
and Stephanie Shaw