Book Review: American Women’s History--A Very Short Introduction

by Theresa Ann Barbieri

As RACC increases the number of courses focused on women, The Yocum Library has increased the number of its holdings to support these courses. A relatively new acquisition is American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction by Susan Ware (published in 2015 by Oxford University Press).

It’s a small book that makes it--it's only 7 x 4.5 inches and 118 pages--which makes it a quick and easy read. The book provides all the basic information about American women’s lives and struggles from the settlement of the New World to today. It’s divided into four chapters, each covering a specific time period. 

The first chapter discusses North America’s women from the beginning to 1750. The author begins with the lives of Native American women who were here long before the Europeans arrived. Pocohontas is a featured story in this chapter as might be expected; however, it’s not the tales you might have heard, but several theories from a number of historians as to who she was and what she did.

The second chapter covers 1750 to 1848, the time of the preparations for the American Revolution, the actual war and the immediate post war period. Some little-known stories are those about the women who actually fought in the American Revolution disguised as men.

The third chapter covers 1848 to 1920 and focuses on women fighting for their rights especially the right to vote. The suffrage movement is a large focus of this chapter.

The final chapter covers what Ware calls Modern American Women, 1920 to the present. This is the longest chapter and includes information about women breaking into the work world, women in World War II, Title IX, and more recent issues such as the International Women’s Conference, women in politics, and more.

One of the strongest features is that the book covers all of American women’s history: native American, African American, immigrants of other ethnicities and races, as well as European Caucasians.

Along with the importance of women in each time period, it looks at the average woman’s life and experiences. The book intersperses little-known stories along with those that are well-known to punctuate the discussion of the importance of events in women’s history.

While the book focuses on women’s roles throughout history, it also serves as a good overview of many of American history’s memorable events. Now if we can just get our history textbooks to include more of women’s contributions....