Pioneer women The lives of women on the frontier

Using photographs from more than 30 archives and anecdotes drawn from letters, diaries, local histories, and oral history interviews, Peavy and Smith, popular writers who have collaborated frequently in the past, reconstruct the world of frontier women, emphasizing the hardships of their existence and their determination to persevere. There are a few mentions of eastern frontiers, but the trans-Mississippi west predominates, as do the experiences of Anglo women, although the authors include more about minority women than do many writers. Topics include traveling to the west, establishing new homes, maintaining families, women's work inside and outside the home, and community activities. The book breaks no new ground in interpretation, but it is richly detailed, evocative, and sure to stimulate interest in its subject matter. Scholars will find the work less useful because the anecdotes are rarely placed in an adequate chronological, geographical, or cultural framework to assist more sophisticated generalizations. Nonetheless, general readers and undergraduates will enjoy this work, which serves as a needed corrective for more romanticized versions of western history. P. F. Field; Ohio University