Customer Reviews

Women Making America

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I am friends with one of the authors and remember when she and her sister finally sent off their last edits, after 5+ years of research (while raising small children). So I bought the book primarily to support her -- then started reading it and could not put it down! Women Making America should be in every junior high and high school in this country. It's comprehensive and informative, but also fun, fascinating, inspiring, and totally engaging. Plus, the illustrations/photos are incredible. I plan to buy more copies and give them to all my fellow Moms-of-daughters. Even if you don't have daughters or aren't a woman, this book is bound to captivate you.

E.H. Williams, Ph.D.

Growing up as a woman for over six decades, I felt I had a good idea of what it was like to be a woman and have an understanding of women's issues. It was not until I picked up WOMAN MAKING AMERICA did I realize how much I owed to the many women who have preceded me. I stand at this juncture in time because of the thousands of women who toiled, most unrecognized, to give each succeeding generation new opportunities.

As a petite woman of Asian ancestry, I could easily be scrubbing laundry instead of being a school administrator and university professor had it not been for the women who incrementally opened the doors of opportunity for future generations. My classmates were the last to be cubbyholed into being only teachers, nurses, secretaries, or housewives. Succeeding generations flung open arenas that had been exclusively male dominated fields. So I have personally witnessed many transitions. WOMEN MAKING AMERICA helped me to step back and gain an overall perspective of this period.

History belongs to those who write it and most of them were men. The disenfranchised and the minorities were left out. The Hemming sisters have reminded us that America was more than white, aristocratic men. Painstaking research revealed people like Mumbet, a slave who sued for her freedom in 1780, Nan'yehi, a Cherokees widow who led her clan to victory in battle, Anna May Wong, actress, and Dorothy Kamenshek, baseball player in the All-American Girls Baseball League. The stories of real women are masterfully woven to tell the tale, instead of some dry narrative told by an ivory tower intellectual. A personal warmth permeates the skillfully written pages.

Reading the sidebars is a study in itself. Interesting tidbits lure you to read obscure, yet interesting facts about women who quietly made a difference. Historical photographs and drawings lace the book, so even the most hardened non-reader will be drawn to peruse it. Ideally from middle school onward, WOMEN MAKING AMERICA can be used as a textbook, or supplemental reading filling in the missing half of our American history.

As I read about these women, I thought of middle school girls and how many of them begin to lose their way as documented in Reviving Ophelia; Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher. Dynamic young girls get caught up in the peer culture which can be destructive. Exposure to women in various occupations and times can give them new role models that can dilute and counter the poisonous popular culture. Young girls can begin to see there are many ways to live a fulfilling life.

The stories touched me. When I finished WOMEN MAKING AMERICA I paused to utter a silent prayer of gratitude to all the women I shall never personally know, but who helped open the opportunities I have today. These are the Americans whose shoulders I stand on. These women helped make America!

This is a fun book filled with lots of photos, illustrations, and sidebars with facts and information. Useful and informative for anyone, whether a child or an adult.I have included this book in my online Gender Equality Bookstore.

Delightful book - well written, well researched - a must for every girl to read

As a teacher and school counselor for many years, I have learned the need for young women to develop a sense of worth and direction in their lives. Too often, middle and high school aged girls define themselves by their boyfriends and media images. These same mistakes are made by many young men compounding their problems as well.

This book is fun to browse through and allows a person to quickly learn important contributions made by women throughout this country's history. I believe this book could be a valuable tool enabling our young people to define women and their roles in a healthy light, and would likely encourage positive goals and perspective. I recommend this work as a text book, a table top book and for book clubs. There are other "women's history" books for young girls and others for older women but this is the first book I've seen where the fragile teenage years are the primary audience.

Filled with vintage black-and-white as well as color photographic images throughout, Women Making America is history of women's contributions to the United States from the 1770s to the modern day. From Mary Walker, who earned a Medal of Honor serving as military surgeon for the Union during the Civil War, to Dorothy Harrison Eustis, founder of the first American seeing-eye-dog school in 1930, to Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1968, Women Making America touches upon the lives of extraordinary individuals as well as covering the broad societal transitions and issues affecting America in general and its women in particular as the nation evolved. "In rural households, women and men had their own, specific jobs. Women cared for cows and chickens, made butter and cheese, gathered eggs, grew vegetables and herbs, hauled water, and gathered wood. Men cleared land, plowed and planted corn, butchered animals, and maintained tools and buildings. If they had an orchard, they maintained it together. Men's work followed the cycle of the seasons, with stretches of intense physical exertion followed by periods of rest. Women's work, no matter the season, had no end." An excellent, reader-friendly textbook for high school students or adults of all backgrounds.

Amazon: I have nothing but endless praise for this wonderful book. It was the best $25 I have ever spent for a quality book. I affirmed greater empathy for "the myriads of women past and present who have worked to give women an equitable and respected place at the American table." Through their book the Savage and Hemming women authors have significantly contributed to womens'history. What a legacy for their children. These authors should go on book tours "and shatter remaining glass ceilings" and sell thousands of books. I am ordering another for the St. George UT public library. The pictures/photo credits were well sourced; the bibliography was impressive; what a bang up job on the ERA; Roe v. Wade; womens'art; and health tomes. One miniscule omission in the arts area, the authors grew up in the Washington, D.C. area (and the capitol of Blue Grass in the world). A natural bias of mine was to be at the Birchmere Restaurant in Alexandria, VA and listen with Jim Brady to the Seldom Scene and Emmy Lou Harris. Those days will never come back. So, these two authors (Hemming and Savage)are forever my "Title IX lovelies. Murt Murdock, GM-15, St.George, Utah

Ask someone about prominent figures in American history, and most can quickly come up with dozens of names. Change the question to prominent women in American history, and, sadly, most won't be able to get to 20. Women Making America sets out to change that, and in the process, not only gives you the history of the many women who were key figures in this nation's development, but also adds a second unique perspective, one very uncommon to find in history books. Women Making America gives the history of this nation through the individual stories of all of the people living through each era. Rather than simply going from one set of wars and major political events to the next, it describes life as it was for the poor, the unknown, the black, the Native American, and the laborer, both female and male. The book is organized into nine eras, from 1770-1800 (titled 'a revolutionary generation') to 1963 to 1990 ('the world turned upside down'). Within each of these eras, the authors, two sisters with backgrounds in American History and American Studies, have focused on seven broad areas to examine closely: Health, Paid Work, At Home, Education, Beauty, Amusements, and the Arts. it is hard not to be continually amazed at how vital and little-known a role women have played in every part of the fabric of American life. On April 26, 1777, a sixteen year-old galloped 40 miles through rain and mud at night and rounded up 400 militia because of an imminent British attack. The British were beaten off, thanks to the teenager, one Sybil Luddington. In the civil war, Mary Walker, MD, was a military field surgeon for the Union until captured by the confederacy. She was ultimately awarded the Medal of Honor. Lozen was an Apache woman who could run, ride, and shoot as well or better than most of the male warriors and fought as an equal in the battles. Edith Bolling Galt was essentially the President of the United States for 18 months after Woodrow Wilson's stroke left him unable to continue, something that was kept secret. The book does not just focus on the famous and accomplished, nor is it exclusively about western Europeans. In every chapter, Native Americans, African Americans, slaves, the poor, the factor workers, and those who became known not so much for historic accomplishment, but for other reasons also receive mention, such as Jackie Mitchell, a 17 year-old who struck out Babe Ruth, Tony Lazzeri, and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game, or Celia Cooney, the 'bobbed hair bandit' who robbed a string of banks in the 20s. Finally, and I think the most powerful element of this book, are the descriptions, quotes, and stories of completely ordinary women in every one of the eras, and what their lives wwere like. My own favorite is in a discussion of the widespread practice of forcing young girls to embroider samplers to prove their domestic skills. Patty Polk embroidered "Patty Polk did this and she hated every stitch she did in it. She loves to read much more'. This is a book which is well worth reading for many reasons. It is an excellent American history from which you can learn quite a lot, it is a collection of stories about the less celebrated people most of us haven't really known that much about, and above all, as the authors intended, it brings to light the fact that women not only hold up half the sky, but create half our history, something we need to know, and something this book is a great stride towards.

I really enjoyed this book. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. I have studied women in history, but I learned more about Women's History from this book than I did in college. It kept surprising me with stories, pictures, and facts that I never knew. The pictures are delightful, and the format makes it interesting for adults and accessible to adolescents. Everyone who is the slightest bit interested in history or women in the United States will find this a delightful read. It would also be a great gift for any occasion.

I love this book! A couple of weeks ago I got this book that was so written for someone like me. Historical information that is easy to understand and explained in a way that I will remember, large fonts, pictures, and motivated me to want to be a better person as well as kept me sitting on the edge of my seat. I keep it by my bed side at night and grab a few pages before I fall asleep.
This is a must have for anyone raising girls!