This collection of twenty-four original essays by leading scholars in American women's history highlights the most recent important scholarship on the key debates and future directions of this popular and contemporary field. Covers the breadth of American Women's history, including the colonial family, marriage, health, sexuality, education, immigration, work, consumer culture, and feminism. Surveys and evaluates the best scholarship on every important era and topic. Includes expanded bibliography of titles to guide further research.

This collection of twenty-four original essays by leading scholarsin American women's history highlights the most recent importantscholarship on the key debates and future directions of thispopular and contemporary field.* Covers the breadth of American Women's history, including thecolonial family, marriage, health, sexuality, educationimmigration, work, consumer culture, and feminism.* Surveys and evaluates the best scholarship on every importantera and topic.* Includes expanded bibliography of titles to guide furtherresearch.

About the Contributors ixIntroduction xiiPart I the Colonial Era, 1600±1760 11The Imperial Gaze: Native American, African American, and Colonial Women in European Eyes 3Kirsten Fischer2 Slavery and the Slave Trade 20Jennifer L. Morgan3 Contact and Conquest in Colonial North America 35Gwenn A. Miller4 Building Colonies, Defining Families 49Ann M. Little5 Sinners and Saints: Women and Religion in Colonial America 66Susan JusterPart II the Creation of a New Nation, 1760±1880 816 A Revolution for Whom? Women in the Era of the American Revolution 83Jan E. Lewis7 Gender and Class Formations in the Antebellum North 100Catherine Kelly8 Religion, Reform, and Radicalism in the Antebellum Era 117Nancy A. Hewitt9 Conflicts and Cultures in the West 132Lisbeth Haas10 Rural Women 150Marli F. Weiner11 The Civil War Era 167Thavolia Glymph12 Marriage, Property, and Class 193Amy Dru Stanley13 Health, Sciences, and Sexualities in Victorian America 206Louise Michele NewmanPart III Modern America, 1880±1990 22514 Education and the Professions 227Lynn D. Gordon15 Wage-earning Women 250Annelise Orleck16 Consumer Cultures 274Susan Porter Benson17 Urban Spaces and Popular Cultures, 1890±1930 295Nan Enstad18 Women on the Move: Migration and Immigration 312Ardis Cameron19 Women's Movements, 1880s±1920s 328Kirsten Delegard20 Medicine, Law, and the State: The History of Reproduction 348Leslie J. Reagan21The Great Depression and World War II 366Karen Anderson22 Rewriting Postwar Women's History, 1945±1960 382Joanne Meyerowitz23 Civil Rights and Black Liberation 397Steven F. Lawson24 Second-wave Feminism 414Rosalyn Baxandall and Linda GordonBibliography: Selected Secondary Sources 433Compiled by April de StefanoIndex 481