Voices of American Women's History from Reconstruction to the Present
Ideal for advanced high school and undergraduate students, this collection of historical and contemporary documents demonstrates that gender is not the only factor that shapes women’s lives. Using pamphlets, personal narratives, photographs, advertisements, congressional testimony, and Supreme Court rulings, Voices of American Women’s History illustrates the intersections between gender, race, class, citizenship, sexuality, marital status, religion, and other identity markers. Each document includes historical context, discussion questions, and research activities to help students engage with primary sources.
Available in hardback and digital formats.
G9 Up—This book offers personal insights into significant issues that have shaped American women’s lives from 1870–2020….The “Ask Yourself” questions and the “Topics and Activities to Consider” are the most unique to this title and make it stand out among other women’s history reference books for this age group.
Compared to other works available, this text provides more breadth of coverage, including Chinese immigration, plural marriage, and lesbianism in the military, in addition to the more expected subjects of women’s suffrage and birth control. Recommended.”
—Jean McDonald, School Library Journal, June 1, 2024
Reviews
The latest volume in Bloomsbury’s Voices of an Era series brings together primary sources that give voice to women’s personal, professional, and political lives since the end of the Civil War. Historian Gunnell (Daughters of Charity, 2013) prioritizes firsthand accounts from women across a variety of racial, class, religious, and sexual identities; however, documents such as court cases, transcripts of congressional hearings, photographs, and advertisements are also included to provide a more complete picture. …Useful as a textbook or as the starting point for student research, this anthology is recommended for high-school and undergraduate libraries.
—Lindsay Harmon, Booklist
Capturing the diversity of women’s experiences in U.S. history.
“Woman” has rarely been unifying category. Race shapes Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian women’s lives, just as political ideology, culture, class, religion, or sexual identity influences others.
The text offers students an opportunity to compare and contrast women’s activities, analyzing critical facets of multiple identities. While it is by no means comprehensive, the selected primary sources represent various streams that shaped women’s everyday lives since the late nineteenth century.
Public and Private Lives
Assessing influences in women’s public and private lives, the text’s major themes include community activism, caregiving and changing conceptions of marriage, consumer culture and class, and confronting violence. Students will learn how women dealt with similar issues in different time periods and be able to demonstrate the expansion of rights and legal protection for women over time.
The text also illustrates women’s consistent efforts to advocate for change in their communities. They used their personal voices to confront the structures of power, whether it is in their families, neighborhoods, or the nation. Women’s presence matters, as do our understanding of the diversity of voices which they represent.
Multiple Vantage Points
Documents encourage students to critically assess the time period from different perspectives.
Student and Instructor Friendly
The book’s structure helps students contextualize the documents and eases instructor preparation by providing discussion questions and ideas for class activities or further research.
Following a rough chronological order, each chapter falls within historical periodizations that correspond with the usual course of study for U.S. Women’s History. Chapters consist of five to seven documents with the following elements:
Introduction: Briefly summarizes the relevant historical context.
Keep in Mind as You Read: Additional insights to aid in critical analysis.
Format Encourages Critical Analysis
Sidebar or Vocabulary: Short biographies of authors and other relevant actors or concepts that may influence a student’s understanding of the text. Definitions for legal terms or other words that are no longer commonplace are provided.
Aftermath: Discusses the effect and significance of the document or events it influenced.
Ask Yourself: Questions to assess whether students understand the text.
Topics and Activities to Consider: Each document provides a jumping off point for further research about women’s experiences in a given time period or along a particular theme. Besides enriching their understanding of the assigned text, the topics and activities section introduces students to available digital resources which they can use in future research.
Further Reading: Provides two or three sources to introduce students to the scholarly literature on the assigned topic. For convenience, suggested readings and primary source repositories are compiled in the Bibliography.
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