A Companion to American Women's History contains twenty-four original essays by leading scholars on the most critical themes and topics in American women's history. Since the field began thirty years ago, there have been no historiographical surveys of American women's history commissioned for one volume until now. This collection highlights, in a series of critical and accessible essays, the most recent important scholarship on the key debates and future directions of this popular and contemporary field. The coverage is wide-ranging in its timeline and themes, including such topics as the colonial family, antebellum reform, the Civil War, marriage, health, sexuality, education, immigration, World War II, work, consumer culture, and feminism. Differences among women rooted in race, ethnicity, class, and region are highlighted throughout. Arranged chronologically, these essays represent the finest critical work to date on the burgeoning history of American women.

Author Biography

Nancy A. Hewitt is Professor of History and Women?s Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of Women's Activism and Social Change (1984) and Southern Discomfort: Women?s Activism in Tampa, Florida, 1880s-1920s (2001), Women's Activism and Social Change (2001), the editor of Women, Families, and Communities (1990), and co-editor of Visible Women: New Essays on American Activism (1993), and Talking Gender: Public Images, Personal Journeys, and Political Critiques (1996).