American Women: A Concise History

by Susan Ware

Susan Ware's concise and lively American Women presents "women as a force in history." Paying homage to historian Mary Ritter Beard's pathbreaking scholarship from the 1930s and 1940s, this conceptual framework highlights the contributions, recognized and unrecognized, that women have made to the American experience. Without downplaying the historical constraints and barriers blocking women's advancement, Ware's narrative emphasizes women as active agents rather than passive victims in a variety of contexts throughout U.S. history.

The goal of American Women is to give the reader familiarity with the main currents and themes of American history through engagement with the specific history of its women. This dual focus is necessary because it is impossible to write about women in isolation from men or unaffected by broader events and trends. And yet women's stories link to larger themes at the same time they often challenge them. With women's stories fully integrated into the broader national story, the end result is a richer understanding of American history in all its complexity, including its transnational and global dimensions.

Genres: History

288 pages, Paperback

Published July 30, 2021

About the author

Susan Ware, celebrated feminist historian and biographer, is the author of American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction and Letter to the World: Seven Women Who Shaped the American Century, among other books. She is the editor of American Women’s Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote, 1776–1965 and is Honorary Women’s Suffrage Centennial Historian at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library.

Reviews

[Morgan Moeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall was a very informative book for my Americans Women's history class. However, I feel that in the last chapter it didn't equally promote the Republican women. It favored the Democrats in the final chapter. It focused on Harris and Cilton. While barely mentioning Palin, Haley, Fiorina, nor Ingraham. I think that as for Democrats they could've mentioned Klobuchar, Sinema, and Warren. As for moderates I think Collins, Murkowski, and Gabbard.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book worked well for my undergraduate class.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short textbook worked as a great basis for a semester course.