America's Women

August 11, 2003
The basis of the struggle of American women, postulates Collins (Scorpion Tongues), "is the tension between the yearning to create a home and the urge to get out of it." Today's issues—should women be in the fields, on the factory lines and in offices, or should they be at home, tending to hearth and family?—are centuries old, and Collins, editor of the New York Times's editorial page, not only expertly chronicles what women have done since arriving in the New World, but how they did it and why. Creating a compelling social history, Collins discovers "it's less a war against oppressive men than a struggle to straighten out the perpetually mixed message about women's role that was accepted by almost everybody of both genders." These confusing messages are repeated over 400 years and are typified in the 1847 lecture of one doctor who stated that women's heads are "almost too small for intellect and just big enough for love" (ironically, around this time Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from an American medical school). The narratives are rich with direct quotes from both celebrated and common women, creating a clear picture of life in the 16th through 20th centuries, covering everyday (menstruation, birth control, cooking, cleanliness) and extraordinary (life during war, the abolition movement, fighting for the right to vote) topics. Beginning with Eleanor Dare and her 1587 sail to the colonies and ending with the 1970s, Collins's work is a fully accessible, and thoroughly enjoyable, primer of how American women have not only survived but thrived. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Alice Martell. (On sale Sept. 23)Forecast:National print ads, appearances on the
Today show and the
CBS Early Show, a 25-city radio satellite tour and lecture tie-in appearances will help Collins reach the masses. Her book deserves a wide readership and is smooth enough to engage almost any kind of reader, academic or not.

Jane Alexander reads this all-encompassing history of American women with just the right amount of humor, indignation, wonder, and disbelief. Covering the history of women in the U.S.--from the time the first female European agreed to board a ship to the New World to modern times--each chapter looks at changing roles and mores through actual journal accounts and historical documents from real women's lives. What could have been a stiff history of feminism instead reads more like fiction, as Collins chronicles lives and times that changed dramatically over 400 years, thanks to the courage of the women who lived them. Alexander is a good match for Collins's style, lending an even pace, great warmth, and a slightly scholarly voice to the history. H.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

June 15, 2003
From the first woman to serve as editorial page editor at the New York Times.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.