Customer Reviews

Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South (Gender and American Culture)

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4 star:		(2)
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I think that Victoria Bynum writes the most accurate books on the Southern South. I was born and raised in Mississippi, I'm 77 years old. My family was from Jones County. Over the years I've heard many tales about living in the that area and the Civil war.

This secondary source was truly unique and different from all women's history book that I have ever read. It gives a detailed view of atypical and deviant women who engaged in behaviors that were controversial during the Antebellum period. I used this when I was writing a report on deviant women of the south. This book takes place in North Carolina becuase N.C. has the most records of divorce, miscegenation, etc. She uses court cases and divorce records and compares different counties and thier court rulings. This book is an excellent source for reports and entertainment. It never bores and keeps you reading and educated all the way.

I bought this book because a Google search showed it had information about one of my ancesters.

I wasn't sure what to expect. Dry dissertation? Hugely slanted feminist agenda? History reduced to charts and tables?

None of the above, I'm happy to say. This is an interesting and engaging look at the lives of some not-so-upstanding women of the 1800s in central NC. It's both approachable for the non-academic (that's me) and yet offers a good, full set of references with which one can do more research. If this were a class, I'd take it in a heartbeat.

As a bonus, I found information about more than one of my own ancesters in the book. Boy, I wish I'd had some of this information when my mother would go on about "your generation doesn't know how to behave like ladies and gentlemen." Yeah, well, mom, apprently neither did your grandmothers' generation!