Major Problems In American Women's History: Documents and Essays (Major Problems in American History Series) [Paperback]

Mary Beth Norton (Author), Ruth M. Alexander (Author), Thomas Paterson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0618122192 | ISBN-13: 978-0618122196 | Publication Date: December 9, 2002 | Edition: 3

This text, appropriate for courses in U.S. women's history, presents a carefully selected group of readings that allow students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions. Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the Major Problems in American History series introduces students to both primary sources and analytical essays.

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About the Author

Mary Beth Norton earned her M.A. (1965) and a Ph.D. (1969) from Harvard University. Since 1971 she has taught at Cornell University, where she is now the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History. A specialist in early American and women's history, Norton has written The British-Americans: The Loyalist Exiles in England, 1774–1789 (1972); Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800 (1980; 1996); and Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society (1996). She has coauthored A People and a Nation (now in its Sixth Edition), has co-edited two volumes of original essays in addition to Major Problems in American Women's History, and has served as the general editor for the American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature (3d ed., 1995). She has written scholarly essays for such journals as the American Historical Review, Signs and the William and Mary Quarterly. She recently completed a new study of the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692.

Norton has held numerous research fellowships, including ones from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. She has also been awarded the Allan Nevins Prize for the best-written dissertation in American history (1970), the Berkshire Conference Prize for the best book by a woman historian (1981), and four honorary degrees. Her most recent book, Founding Mothers & Fathers, was one of three finalists for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in history. Active in professional associations, she has been a member of the council of the Organization of American Historians, vice-president for research of the American Historical Association, and, most recently, chair of the Council of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. She served as a presidential appointee on the National Council for the Humanities, 1978–1984.

Ruth M. Alexander (PhD, Cornell University) earned a BA at the City College of New York and an MA at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Since 1988 she has taught at Colorado State University, where she is currently Chair and Professor of History. A specialist in twentieth-century U.S. and American women's history, Dr. Alexander is the author of The "Girl Problem": Female Sexual Delinquency in New York, 1900–1935(1995). Her articles and essays have appeared several scholarly journals. In addition, Dr. Alexander has won research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Schlesinger Library, the New York State Library, and Colorado State University. She is a recipient of awards from the Western Association of Women Historians and the New York State Archives and Records Administration.

Thomas Paterson is Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Connecticut and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968. In addition to being the General Editor of Houghton Mifflin's Major Problems series, he is co-author of Major Problems in American Foreign Relations, 5/e, (Houghton Mifflin, 2000) and A People and A Nation, 6/e (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). In addition to authoring several books and editing collections of essays on the history of U.S. Foreign Relations, he served as senior editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of American Foreign Relations (1997). He is part president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; 3 edition (December 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618122192
• ISBN-13: 978-0618122196
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven text on an important subject, December 19, 2001

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Major Problems in American Women's History: Documents and Essays (Major Problems in American History Series) (Paperback)

This collection is both a reprint of primary sources and journal articles written by scholars in the field of women's history. Editors Mary Beth Norton and Ruth M. Alexander are college professors with long-standing publishing backgrounds in the field of women's history.

Although the concept of producing a compact reader was well intentioned, the principal problem with this work is it's over reliance on events and incidents prior to 1960.

Starting out as a means of showing women were involved in this country from it's beginning, the book unwittingly undercuts itself by not devoting as much time to the later accomplishments of American women's history. Less fortunate students (without access to the numerous other far well written books) may leave whatever class this was used in with a sense of confusion about the roles of women in the 1960's through the present.

While the outdatedness of the customs and laws governing gender in those times now indicates how far we have come, it does not fully indicate the long and complex process that would perhaps be of interest to the same college students this text is intended for. It is very startling to realize that most of the issues and policies that have helped my generation (reproductive rights for college women, gender equity in educational facilities) were mere dreams when our mothers were attending school.

Certainly every professor has a specialized field-but when a general volume about a historically marginalized group is written, there is an unwritten assumption that this group will finally be getting the fair coverage that has long been it's moral due.

Even though I was fortunate enough to attend a University where women's history was adequately explored in every department, this book may sadly be the only initial contact for students at more conservative institutions. Because women's history remains undertaught in American institutions of higher education, I was hoping that two professionals in the field would want to show students a much more representative breadth and depth.

Students perhaps would be more interested if the text were more expanded to include the 1960's onward-when many of the rights that most impact campus life for women were first agitated for.

Should this text be used as a book for women's history, it would be wise to include "Dear Sisters" and "Unequal Sisters" as supplemental work for better understanding of women's history in general.