Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier [Paperback]

Linda Peavy (Author), Ursula Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998

Pioneer Women provides a rare look at frontier life through the eyes of the pioneer women who settled the American West. Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith vividly describe the hardships such women endured journeying west and making homes and communities on the frontier. Their hopes and fears and, most of all, their courage in the face of adversity are revealed in excerpts from journals, letters, and oral histories. Illustrated with a fascinating collection of seldom-seen photographs, Pioneer Women reveals the faces as well as the voices of women who lived on the frontier.

The authors portray a wide variety of women, from those who found liberty and confidence in undertaking 'men's work' to those who felt burdened by the wind, the weather, and the struggle of frontier life.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The rarely seen and startlingly vital black-and-white photographs in this volume capture the fortitude and pride of the clear-eyed women of the frontier, women who had to practice all the tender arts of nurturing a family under the most rugged of circumstances. Peavy and Smith cut through all the myths of frontier life in their frank and engaging commentary, getting down to the cold, gritty facts under such headings as "Keeping Spirits Up," "Night Fears," "Warding Off Insects and Animals," and "Little Ones Lost." This litany alludes to the loneliness and isolation of pioneer existence, where every act, from securing clean drinking water to making clothes, required long, hard labor, and where pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood often involved as much tragedy as joy. Little-discussed issues, such as marriages between Anglo men and Indian and Hispanic women, are examined, as are the lives of women who found employment outside the homestead as teachers, physicians, businesswomen, journalists, and even prostitutes. A book as fresh and inspiring as a bright, breezy day on the plains. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

This 'patchwork' of women s words and pictures captures the pioneer experience memorably and elegantly. Just as a quilt is made up of many small pieces, this books is based on a multitude of individual stories and a rich range of source material. The authors stitch the pieces together skillfully and unobtrusively, presenting us with an overall picture that is both detailed and sweeping in its design. This is a book to enjoy and learn from. Like an heirloom quilt, this is a book to be treasured. --Susan Armitage, coeditor of The Women s West and Writing The Range

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd); Oklahoma Paperbacks Ed edition (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806130547
• ISBN-13: 978-0806130545
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for women of all ages, October 17, 2001

By 

sharon (Nova Scotia Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier (Paperback)

This book will open your eyes up to the way things were a century and a half ago. Back to the basics is an understatement. Imagine raising 8 children on a farm that you had to establish yourself because your husband and other family members perished on the trip west to get to an unknown territory far far away from immediate family? These women did it. They survived and thier children either a: lived and learned the life or b: died from illness or accidents. This is very graphic and very personable to the very core of many women's souls. Women who kept diaries on the Oregon Trail in 1850 and onwards. Women who were always "in the background" keeping the family fed, clothed, silent and schooled. Women are most definitly the most gentle and most strong of the sexes.. Why? Because they have a continuous human spirit and one that gets them through the toughest of times of all.
Please read this book and with that said.. the pictures in this book are a historian's dream!

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Interesting Reading, June 3, 2002

By 

Diana L. Greenwood (Norco, Ca. United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier (Paperback)

Pioneer Women-The Lives of Women on the Frontier is a must for collectors of western lore-whether as used for reference or just for reading pleasure this book delves into little covered issues and answers the questions previously unmentioned regarding women on the frontier. From traveling west to every day life, from cooking to birth control, women domestic pioneers to women entrepreneurs; if you have a question about the lives of women in the 1800's this book probably has the answer in its pages.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book to be Treasured, June 18, 2001

By 

Kerry Atkins (Connecticut, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier (Paperback)

Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith do a fine job of showing and telling the pioneer experience through the eyes of our frontier women. With visual images and descriptive narratives, PIONEER WOMEN details the everyday struggles and deprivations experienced by our westward women.

The stories are about courageous women that left behind well-established homes to travel to unsettled regions; women that learned to "make do" and start from scratch to set up housekeeping; women from all walks of life who melded together to do what they could to improve their new surroundings; and the women who civilized the West.

PIONEER WOMEN is a collection of stories as taken from letters, diaries, memoirs, oral histories, and other personal papers of women themselves. It's brilliantly reconstructed and a must read for the avid or casual reader!