FALL SEMESTER 2004

HISTORY 697D: SYLLABUS

GRADUATE TOPICS COURSE: WOMEN AND GENDER IN US HISTORY

 

Professor Joyce Avrech Berkman

Office: Herter Hall 605

Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:45-4:15 PM and by appointment

Office Phone: 545-6759

Home Address: 66 Cottage Street, Amherst, MA 01002

Home Phone: 549-0659 and 549-0089

Email: jberkman@history.umass.edu

 

 

 

“To ignore women is not simply to ignore a significant subgroup within the social structure.  It is to misunderstand and distort the entire organization of that society.” Carroll Smith Rosenberg

 

“…the most dramatic shift in my own thinking came through asking questions about HOW hierarchies such as those of gender are constructed and legitimized.” Joan Wallach Scott

 

 

 

Course Objectives:

1.       To deepen understanding of the array of influences and their interconnections that shape women’s experience and consciousness and behavior.

2.       To gain insights into the relationships between WHAT we know and HOW we know, including the values that we and other scholars bring to a question.

3.       To grapple with the some of the major scholarly debates within the field of women’s history.

 

The following readings offer a balance between groundbreaking essays and books, in effect what now serves as canonical scholarship, and the most recent scholarship on a topic. A one semester course can not possibly cover all the major topics in the field of US women and gender history.  My choices of topics varies from semester to semester. Similarly, the lists of required and recommended readings are not exhaustive of the major works for a given topic. They constitute a selection of some of the most important scholarship for that topic. Finally, this syllabus is open to adjustments. As I discover class interests and needs, I may revise sections.  Please feel easy about getting in touch with me and arranging appointments. I look very much forward to coming to know each of you outside the class.

 

 

 

SCHEDULE:

 

9/8   CHARTING OUR COURSE: INTRODUCTION

Handout: Laurel Ulrich, "A Pail of Cream" from "Round Table on Self and Subject," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 89, 1(June 2002): 17-53

 

 

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: Since this is a graduate course, background in US women's history at the undergraduate level or in another graduate course is essential. If you have not had a survey course in US women's history or taken such a course some time ago, you will benefit from the following two texts. I expect each of you to be familiar with its relevant documents and essays as they bear on each week's discussion.

Basic Survey Texts in US Women's History

1.       Nancy Woloch, WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, 3rd. edition, McGraw Hill, 2000

2.       Linda Kerber and Jane Sherron De Hart edited WOMEN’S AMERICA: REFOCUSING THE PAST, 6th edition, Oxford, 2003

You are also invited to attend my lectures in History 388 during the fall and History 389 during the spring.

 

Although I will be assigning particular writing in women's history theory, methods, and historiography, for a general introduction to feminist and gender theory the following readings are useful. They are not required.

Recommended for Theory

1.       Judy Wajeman, "Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies: In What State is the Art?", SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE, 30, 3(June 2000): 447-464.

2.       "Openings on the Body: A Critical Introduction" in Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick edited FEMINIST THEORY AND THE BODY: A READER, 1-20.

3.       Linda McDowell, GENDER IDENTITY AND PLACE: FEMINIST GEOGRAPHIES, 1999

4.    Rosemarie Tong, FEMINIST THOUGHT: A MORE COMPREHENSIVE INTRODUCTION, 1998

 

9/15 NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN:

CATEGORIES OF ANALYSIS

          

List A Required:

1. Kathleen M. Brown,  GOOD WIVES, NASTY WENCHES AND ANXIOUS PATRIARCHS: GENDER, RACE AND POWER IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 1996

2. Evelyn Brooks Higgenbotham, “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race” SIGNS 17, 2(Winter, 1992).

3. Joan Wallach Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 91, 5(December 1986), also printed in various volumes of Scott has written or edited, e.g.GENDER AND THE POLITICS OF HISTORY, 1988 and FEMINISM AND HISTORY, 1996.

 

List B Required:

1.       Louis Montrose, “The Work of Gender in the Discourse of Discovery,” REPRESENTATIONS  33 (Winter 1991): 1-41

2.       Richard C. Trexler, "Making the American Berdache: Choice or Constraint?" JOURNAL OF SOCIAL HISTORY, 35, 3 (Spring 2002), 613-633.

3.       Nancy Cott et. al. "Considering the State of U.S. Women's History," JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY, 15, 1 (Spring 2003): 145-163.

4.       Stephanie Wood, “Sexual Violation in the Conquest of the Americas,” and Gordon Sayre, “Native American Sexuality in the Eyes of the Beholders, 1535-1710,” in SEX AND SEXUALITY IN EARLY AMERICA, ed. Merril D. Smith , 1998

 

Recommended:

1.       Theda Perdue, CHEROKEE WOMEN: GENDER, CULTURE AND CHANGE, 1700-1835, 1998

2.       Carol Devens, SEPARATE CONFRONTATIONS: INDIAN WOMEN AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, 1630-1900, 1992

3.       Nancy Shoemaker, ed., NEGOTIATORS OF CHANGE: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN, 1995

4.       Laura Klein and Lillian Ackerman eds., WOMEN AND POWER IN NATIVE NORTH AMERICA, 1995

5.       Karen Anderson, CHAIN HER BY ONE FOOT: THE SUBJUGATION OF NATIVE WOMEN IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NEW FRANCE, 1991

6.       Ramon Gutierrez, WHEN JESUS CAME, THE CORN MOTHER WENT AWAY: MARRIAGE, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN NEW MEXICO, 1500-1846, 1991

7.       Gretchen L. Green, “Gender and the Longhouse: Iroquois Women in a Changing Culture” and Eirlys M. Barker, “Princesses, Wives, and Wenches: White Perceptions of Southeastern Indian Women to 1770”  in WOMEN AND FREEDOM IN EARLY AMERICA, ed. Larry D. Eldridge, 1997

8.       Nancy Shoemaker, “How Indians Got to be Red” in AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 102 (June 1997): 625-644.

9.       Mary C. Wright "The Woman's Lodge: Constructing Gender on the Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest Plateau," FRONTIERS, 24, 1: 1-18.

10.   John Demos,  THE UNREDEEMED CAPTIVE: A FAMILY STORY FROM EARLY AMERICA, 1995

11.   Kathyrn Z. Derounian-Stodala, ed. WOMEN'S INDIAN CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES, 1998

 

 

9/22   COLONIAL EUROPEAN WOMEN'S  LIFE AND LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND:TYPES OF EVIDENCE/MODES OF NARRATIVE

 

List A Required:

1.       Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, GOOD WIVES, 1980, 1991: Read Introduction, one of the three Parts, and Afterword

2.       Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A MIDWIFE’S TALE, 1990: Read Introduction and select two chapters for close study.

3.       Marla Miller, "Gender, Artisanry, and Craft Tradition in Early New England: The View through the Eye of a Needle," WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY, LX, 4 (October, 2003): 743-776

 

List B Required:

1.       Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “Wheels, Looms, and the Gender Division of Labor: Eighteenth-Century New England,” WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY, LV,1 (January, 1998)

2.       Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “Of Pins and Needles: Sources in Early American Women’s History” in JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 77(1990): 200-07

3.       Carole Shammas, "The Domestic Environment in Early Modern England and America," JOURNAL OF SOCIAL HISTORY 31 (1980): 3-24

4.       Laurel Thatcher Ulrich,THE AGE OF HOMESPUN, 2001

 

Recommended:

1.       If possible, see the video of A MIDWIFE'S TALE, available through Umass AIMS and some video stores. See related series of responses, including one by Marla Miller, in "Dialogue: Paradigm Shift Books: A MIDWIFE'S TALE by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich" JOURNAL OF WOMEN' S HISTORY 14, 3 (Autumn, 2002): 133-161.

2.       Mary Beth Norton, LIBERTY’S DAUGHTERS: THE REVOLUTIONARY EXPERIENCE OF   AMERICAN WOMEN, 1750-1800, 1980 (Read Colonial Era)

3.       Paula A. Treckel, “TO COMFORT THE HEART”: WOMEN IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA, 1996

4.       Linda K. Kerber, WOMEN OF THE REPUBLIC: INTELLECT AND IDEOLOGY IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA, 1980 (Read Colonial Era)

5.       Joan R. Gundersen, TO BE USEFUL TO THE WORLD: WOMEN IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA, 1996

6.       Carol Berkin, FIRST GENERATIONS: WOMEN IN COLONIAL AMERICA, 1998

7.        Mary Beth Norton, FOUNDING MOTHERS AND FATHERS: GENDERED POWER AND THE FORMING OF AMERICAN SOCIETY, 1996

 

9/29 SEX, RELIGION, LAW: DISOBEDIENT AND DISSIDENT COLONIAL WOMEN/LEGAL RECORDS

 

List A Required:

1.       Sandra F. VanBurkleo, "BELONGING TO THE WORLD" WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL CULTURE, 2001, Part One, chapter one

2.       Review the excerpt Mary Beth Norton, "Searchers again Assembled," in Kerber and DeHart, eds., WOMEN'S AMERICA, 6th ed. or read section on Thomasina Hall in her FOUNDING MOTHERS AND FATHERS: GENDERED POWER AND THE FORMING OF AMERICAN SOCIETY, 1996

4.       Aaron Spencer Fogleman, "Jesus Is Female: The Moravian Challenge in the German Communities of British North America," WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY, LX, 2 (April 2003): 295-332

5.       Catherine Brekus, STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS: FEMALE PREACHING IN AMERICA, 1740-1845,1998: read Introduction and Chapters that treat First Great Awakening.

 

List B Required:

1.       Else Hambleton, DAUGHTERS OF EVE: PREGNANT BRIDES AND UNWED MOTHERS IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, 2004

2.       Else Hambleton, "The Regulation of Sex in Seventeenth Century Massachusetts: The Quarterly Court of Essex County vs. Priscilla Willson and Mr. Samuel Appleton," in  SEX AND SEXUALITY IN EARLY AMERICA, ed. Merril D. Smith, 1998.

3.       Cornelia Hughes Dayton, “Taking the Trade: Abortion and Gender Relations in an Eighteenth-Century New England Village,”WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY, 48 (1991): 19-49

4.       Cornelia Hughes Dayton, WOMEN BEFORE THE BAR: GENDER, LAW AND SOCIETY IN CONNECTICUT, 1639-1789, 1995

5.       Janet Moore Lindman and Michele L. Tarter, eds., A CENTRE OF WONDERS: THE BODY IN EARLY AMERICA, 2001

6.       Susan Klepp, "Colds, Worms, and Hysteria: Menstrual Regulation in Eighteenth-Century America," REGULATING MENSTRUATION, eds. Etienne van de Walle and Elisha Renne. 2001

7.       Jean Marie Lutes, "Negotiating Theology and Gynecology: Anne Bradstreet's Representation of the Female Body, " SIGNS 22, 2(Winter, 1997): 309-340

8.       Irene Quenzler Brown and Richard D. Brown, THE HANGING OF EPHRAIM WHEELER: A STORY OF RAPE, INCEST, AND JUSTICE IN EARLY AMERICA, 2003

9.       Ruth Bloch, GENDER AND MORALITY IN ANGO-AMERICAN CULTURE, 1650-1800. 2003

10.   If you’re interested in the topic of witches and witchhunting, a copious body of scholarship awaits you.

**The most recent work on this subject that I heartily recommend is Mary Beth Norton, IN THE DEVIL'S SNARE: THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT CRISIS OF 1690, 2002

 

Recommended:

1.       Sharon Block and Kathleen M. Brown, "Clio in Search of Eros: Redefining Sexualities in Early America," WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY LX,2(April 2003): 5-12 (The entire issue is useful.)

2.       Ruth H. Bloch, "Changing Conceptions of Sexuality and Romance in Eighteenth-Century America, " THE WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY, LX, 1 (January 2003)

3.       Merril D. Smith,  ed., SEX AND SEXUALITY IN EARLY AMERICA, 1998

4.       Merril D. Smith, ed. SEX WITHOUT CONSENT, 2001

5.       Sharon Block, "Rape and Race in Colonial Newspapers, 1728-1776" JOURNALISM HISTORY 27 (Winter, 2001-2002): 146-155.

 

10/6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: FEMALE CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

 

List A Required:

1.       Linda K. Kerber, “The Paradox of Women’s Citizenship in the Early Republic: The case of Martin vs. Massachusetts, 1805,” AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 97(April 1992): 349-378.

2.       Linda K. Kerber, “A Constitutional Right to be Treated Like American Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship,” in US HISTORY AS WOMEN’S HISTORY: NEW FEMINIST ESSAYS, eds. Linda K. Kerber, Alice Kessler Harris, Kathryn Kish Sklar, 1995

3.       Linda K. Kerber, “`May all our Citizens be Soldiers, and all our Soldiers Citizens’: The Ambiguities of Female Citizenship in the New Nation” in ARMS AT REST, eds., Joan R. Challinor and Robert L. Beisma, 1987

4.       Joan Gundersen, “Independence, Citizenship, and the American Revolution,”SIGNS 13 (Autumn 1987)

5.       VanBurkleo, Part One, chapter Two.

 

List B Required:

1.       Ronald Hoffman and Peter Albert, eds., WOMEN IN THE AGE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS, 1989

2.       Linda K. Kerber, WOMEN OF THE REPUBLIC, 1980 (read chapters on the Revolution and Aftermath)

3.       Mary Beth Norton, LIBERTY'S DAUGHTERS , 1980(read chapters on the Revolution and Aftermath)

 

Recommended:

1.       Carol Pateman, THE SEXUAL CONTRACT, 1988

2.       Joan Hoff, LAW, GENDER, AND INJUSTICE: A LEGAL HISTORY OF WOMEN, 1991

3.       Linda K. Kerber, NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BE LADIES: WOMEN AND THE OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP, 1998

4.       Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray, “Gender Slurs in Boston’s Partisan Press during the 1840s,: JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES, 34, 3(2000): 413-446 (exemplary  footnotes)

10/13 **IN LIEU OF 11/24, THANKSGIVING EVE, LET’S MEET THIS WEEK AND IGNORE THE UNIVERSITY’S DECISION TO HOLD MONDAY CLASSES ON  WEDNESDAY**

 

 CONCEPTUALIZING THE FEMALE BODY: MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES ON FEMALE NATURE, 1800-1920

 

List A Required:

1.       Cynthia Russett, SEXUAL SCIENCE, 1989

2.       Linda Gordon, THE MORAL PROPERTY OF WOMEN: A HISTORY OF BIRTH CONTROL POLITICS IN AMERICA, Introduction, Parts One and Two

 

List B Required: (plus several titles that address female friendship and intimacy)

1.       Regina Morantz-Sanchez, “Negotiating Power at the bedside: Historical Perspectives on Nineteenth-century Patients and Their Gynecologists,”FEMINIST STUDIES 26, 2(Summer 2000): 287-309 (See useful historical discussion in footnotes)

2.       Carroll Smith Rosenberg, “Puberty to Menopause: The Cycle of Femininity in Nineteenth-Century America,”FEMINIST STUDIES 1(1973):58-72

3.       Simone Weil Davis, "Loose Lips Sink Ships," FEMINIST STUDIES 28, 1(Spring 2002): 7-35 (this essay treats a contemporary surgery, but the cultural assumptions that underpin this surgery trace back to the nineteenth century.

4.       Stephen Robertson, "Signs, Marks, and Private Parts: Doctors, Legal Discourses and Evidence of Rape in the United Sates, 1823-1930,"JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY, 8, 3(January 1998): 345-388

5.       Leila J. Rupp, “`Imagine My Surprise’: Women’s Relationships in Historical Perspective” FRONTIERS: A JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES, 5, 3(Fall 1980): 61-70, reprinted in WOMEN AND HEALTH IN AMERICA, ed. Judith Walzer Leavitt, 1984.

6.       Lillian Faderman, ODD GIRLS AND TWILIGHT LOVERS,  1992, Introduction and first two chapters

7.       Lillian Faderman, TO BELIEVE IN WOMEN: WHAT LESBIANS HAVE DONE FOR AMERICA-- A HISTORY, 1999

8.       Carroll Smith Rosenberg, “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations Between Women in Nineteenth-Century America” SIGNS 1 (1975): 1-30

9.       Nancy Cott, THE BONDS OF WOMANHOOD, 1977, 1997

10.   Blanche Cook, “Female Support Networks and Political Activism:Lillian Wald, Crystal Eastman, Emma Goldman, in A HERITAGE OF HER OWN, eds. Nancy Cott and Elizabeth Pleck, 1979: 412-444.

 

Recommended:

1.       Stephen Robertson, “Signs, Marks, and Private Parts: Doctors, Legal Discourses and Evidence of Rape in the United States, 1823-1930” JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY, 8,3 (January 1998):345-388

2.       Regina Morantz-Sanchez, SYMPATHY AND SCIENCE: WOMEN PHYSICIANS IN AMERICAN MEDICINE, 1985

3.       Janet Farell Brodie, CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION IN 19TH CENTURY AMERICA, 1994

4.       James Mohr, ABORTION IN AMERICA: THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF NATIONAL POLICY, 1978

5.       Londa Schiebinger, NATURE’S BODY, 1998

6.       Evelyn Fox Keller, REFLECTIONS ON GENDER AND SCIENCE, 1985

7.       John and Robin Haller Jr. PHYSICIAN AND SEXUALITY IN VICTORIAN AMERICA, 1974

8.       Andrea Tone, DEVICES AND DESIRES: A HISTORY OF CONTRACEPTIVES IN AMERICA, 2001

 

10/2O ANTEBELLUM AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN' S LIVES/AUTOBIOGRAPHY

 

List A Required:

1.       Jacqueline Jones, LABOR OF LOVE, LABOR OF SORROW, 2nd edition, 1985 (1995 reprint includes Epilogue): Introduction and chapter one

2.       Harriet A. Jacobs, INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL ed. Jean Fagan Yellin (read only this edition), 2000. Pay close attention to Yellin's theories and methods of analyzing autobiography.

 

List B Required:

3.       Nell Painter, SOJOURNER TRUTH, A LIFE, A SYMBOL, 1996

4.       Jean Humez, HARRIET TUBMAN, 2003

5.       Jean Fagan Yellin, HARRIET JACOBS, 2004

 

Recommended:

1.       Deborah White, AR’N’T I A WOMAN?1985

2.       James O. Horton, FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, 1993

3.       William Andrews, ed., SISTERS OF THE SPIRIT, 1996

4.       A.G. Barthelemy, ed., COLLECTED BLACK WOMEN’S NARRATIVES, 1988

5.       R. Billington, ed., THE JOURNAL OF CHARLOTTE FORTEN

6.       Elizabeth Fox Genovese, WITHIN THE PLANTATION HOUSEHOLD, 1988

7.       Suzanne Lebsock, THE FREE WOMEN OF PETERSBURG…1985

8.       Brenda Stevenson, LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE…1996

9.       Marilyn Richardson, ed., MARIA W. STEWART, AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK WOMAN POLITICAL WRITER, 1987

10.   Jean McMahon Humez, ed., GIFTS OF POWER: THE WRITINGS OF REBECCA JACKSON, BLACK VISIONARY, SHAKER ELDRESS, 1981

11.   Ella Forbes, AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN DURING THE CIVIL WAR, 1998.

12.   For excellent historical fiction see: Toni Morrison, BELOVED, Shirley Ann Williams, DESSA ROSE, Margaret Walker, JUBILEE.

 

Recommended for the study of Autobiography:

1.        Jill Conway, WHEN MEMORY SPEAKS, 1998

2.        Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, eds., WOMEN, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, THEORY: A READER, 1998: Introduction

3.        Hazel Carby, RECONSTRUCTING WOMANHOOD, 1987, chapters one and two.

4.        Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “Open Secrets: Memory, Imagination, and the Refashioning of Southern Identity,” AMERICAN QUARTERLY, 50 (March 1998) and her “`You Must Remember This’:Autobiography as Social Critique,” JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 85 (September 1998): 439-65.

5.        Margo Culley, ed., AMERICAN WOMEN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY: FEA(S)TS OF MEMORY, 1992, Chapter one

6.        Martine Watson Brownley and Allison B. Kimmich, eds., WOMEN AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 1999, chapter one and thirteen.

 

 

Recommended for the study of Biography

1.       Paula Backscheider, REFLECTIONS ON BIOGRAPHY, 1999

2.       Elizabeth Young-Bruehl, SUBJECT TO BIOGRAPHY…1998

 

10/27   AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES: RECONSTRUCTION TO 1930/WHAT IS THE MEANING OF EMANCIPATION?

 

List A Required:

1.       Jacqueline Jones, LABOR OF LOVE, LABOR OF SORROW (see above) chs.2-5

2.       Tera Hunter, `TO JOY MY FREEDOM: SOUTHERN BLACK WOMEN’S LIVES AND LABORS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, 1997 and “Symposium on Tera Hunter …” LABOR HISTORY, 39, 2 (May 1998): 169-187

 

List B Required:

1.       Karin L. Zipf, “Reconstructing `Free Woman’: African American Women, Apprenticeship, and Custody Rights during Reconstruction,” JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S HISTORY, 12, 1 (Spring 2000): 8-31

2.       Carol Lasser, “Slavery, Gender and the Meaning of Freedom” GENDER AND HISTORY 13, 1(April 2001):161-166, fine example of a thematic review of scholarship.

3.       Else Barkley Brown, “Womanist Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint Luke” SIGNS 14, 3 (Spring 1989): 610-33

 

Recommended:

1.       Laura F. Edwards, GENDERED STRIFE AND CONFUSION: THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF RECONSTRUCTION, 1997

2.       Ida B.Wells, CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE, 1970 reprint

3.       Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, GENDER AND JIM CROW: WOMEN AND THE POLITICS OF WHITE SUPREMACY IN NORTH CAROLINA, 1896-1920, 1996

4.       Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, RIGHTEOUS DISCONTENT: THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT IN THE BLACK BAPTIST CHURCH, 1993

5.       Linda O. McMurry, TO KEEP THE WATERS TROUBLED: THE LIFE OF IDA B. WELLS, 1999.

6.       Patricia Schechter, IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT AND AMERICAN REFORM, 1880-1930, 2001

7.       Kevin K. Gaines, UPLIFTING THE RACE: BLACK LEADERSHIP, POLITICS, AND CULTURE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, 1996

8.       Deborah Gray White, TOO HEAVY A LOAD: BLACK WOMEN IN DEFENSE OF THEMSELVES, 1894-1994, 1999.

9.       Joyce A. Hanson, MARY MCCLEOD BETHUNE: BLACK WOMEN'S POLITICAL ACTIVISM, 2003.

10.   Darlene Clark Hine, HINE SIGHT: BLACK WOMEN AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AMERICAN HISTORY, 1984

 

 

11/3  WOMEN AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT:

 

**Chronologically this topic is out of order, but since as part of our department's special fall series on BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION I've facilitated a reading of Alice Childress' play WINE IN THE WILDERNESS for this month, I would like our class to consider the civil rights movement ahead of the public reading of this play**.

 

List A Required:

1.       Alice Childress' play WINE IN THE WILDERNESS, 1969 in James Hatch and Victoria Sullivan, ed., PLAYS BY AND ABOUT WOMEN, attendance at reading is optional

2.       Vicki Crawford et. al, eds, WOMEN AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1990 (select one chapter)

3.       David Garrow ed., THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT AND THE WOMAN WHO STARTED IT: THE MEMOIR OF JO ANN GIBSON ROBINSON, 1987

 

List B Required:

1.       Anne Moody, GROWING UP IN MISSISSIPPI, 1968

2.       Gail S. Murray ed., THROWING OFF THE CLOAK OF PRIVILEGE: WHITE SOUTH WOMEN ACTIVISTS IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA, 2004

3.       Anne Braden, THE WALL BETWEEN, 2nd ed., 1999

4.       Constance Curry et. al. DEEP IN OUR HEARTS: NINE WHITE WOMEN IN THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, 2000

5.       Cynthia Stokes Brown, REFUSING RACISM, 2002

6.       Cynthia Stokes Brown, READY FROM WITHIN: SEPTIMA CLARK AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1990

7.       Judith Rollins, ALL IS NEVER SAID: THE NARRATIVE OF ODETTE HARPER HINES

8.       Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin, SISTERNS IN THE STRUGGLE: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS-BLACK POWER MOVEMENT, 2001

9.       Barbara Ransby, ELLA BAKER AND THE BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT, 2003

 

Recommended:

1.       Besides Higgenbotham, see for black feminist theory, e.g. Patricia Hill Collins, BLACK FEMINIST THOUGHT, and various works by bell Hooks, such as AIN'T I A WOMAN: BLACK WOMEN AND FEMINISM,  Angela Davis, such as  WOMEN, RACE AND CLASS, and Audre Lorde,  SISTER OUTSIDER, and Adrien K. Wing, ed. CRITICAL RACE FEMINISM: A READER

2.       Vicki Crawford, "Race, Class, Gender, and Culture: Black Women's Activism in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement," JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY 58 (Spring 1996): 1021.

3.       Cynthia Fleming, SOON WE WILL NOT CRY: THE LIBERATION OF RUBY DORIS SMITH ROBINSON, 1998

4.       Chang Kai Lee, FOR FREEDOM'S SAKE: THE LIFE OF FANNIE LOU HAMER.

5.       Belinda Robnett, HOW LONG? HOW LONG? AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, 1997

6.       See several autobiographies by Pauli Murray

7.       Shirley Chisholm, UNBOUGHT AND UNBOSSED

8.       Mary King, FREEDOM SONG

9.       Deborah Schultz, GOING SOUTH: JEWISH WOMEN IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 2001

 

11/10THE ORIGINS AND NATURE OF WOMEN'S MOVEMENT/WOMEN'S REFORM ACTIVISM, SUFFRAGE AND FEMINIST MOVEMENTS, 1776-1930

 

List A Required:

1.       Nancy Cott, THE GROUNDING OF MODERN FEMINISM, 1987

2.       Karen Offen, “Defining Feminism” SIGNS, 14, 1(Autumn, 1988): 119-57 and “Commentary and Reply”, SIGNS 15, 1 (Autumn, 1989): 195-209

3.       VanBurkleo, Part Two (all) and Part Three, chapters 8 and 9

4.       Kristin Hoganson, "'As Badly Off as the Filipinos: U.S, Women's Suffragists and the Imperial Issue at the Turn of the Century,"JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY, 13, 2 (Summer 2001): 9-33.

 

List B Required:

1.       Catherine A. Brekus, STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS: FEMALE PREACHING IN AMERICA, 1740-1845, 1998, read chapters from American Revolution to conclusion

2.       Judith Wellman, "The Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention: A Study of Social Networks, JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY, 3, 1(Spring 1991): 9-37

3.       Suzanne Lebsock, "Woman Suffrage and White Supremacy: A Virginia Case Study, VISIBLE WOMEN: NEW ESSAYS IN AMERICAN ACTIVISM, eds. Nancy Hewitt and Suzanne Lebsock, 1993: 62-100

4.       Jesse F. Battan, "`You cannot fix the scarlet letter on my breast!': Women Reading and Writing and Reshaping Sexual Culture of Victorian America," JOURNAL OF SOCIAL HISTORY, 37, 3(Spring 2004): 601-624

5.       Beverly Schwartzberg, "`Lots of them did that'": Desertion, Bigamy, and Marital Fluidity in Late Nineteenth Century America,"JOURNAL OF SOCIAL HISTORY 37, 3 (Spring 2004): 573-600

6.       Read one of the following studies of Victoria Woodhull:

  1. Barbara Goldsmith, OTHER POWERS: THE AGE OF SUFFRAGE, SPIRITUALISM, AND THE SCANDALOUS VICTORIA WOODHULL, 1998
  2. Mary Gabriel, NOTORIOUS VICTORIA, 1998
  3. Lois Beachy Underhill, THE WOMAN WHO RAN FOR PRESIDENT, 1995
  4. Altina Waller, THE REVEREND BEECHER AND MRS. TILTON: SEX AND CLASS IN VICTORIAN AMERICA, 1982

 

Recommended:

 

1.       Nancy Isenberg, SEX AND CITIZENSHIP IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA, 1998

2.       Candace Lewis Bredbenner, A NATIONALITY OF HER OWN: WOMEN, MARRIAGE AND THE LAW OF CITIZENSHIP, 1998

3.       Anne M. Boylan, THE ORIGINS OF WOMEN'S ACTIVISM: New York and Boston, 1797-1840, 2002

4.       Dolores Hayden, THE GRAND DOMESTIC REVOLUTION, 1983

5.       Mari Jo Buhle, WOMEN AND AMERICAN SOCIALISM, 1870-1920, 1985

6.       Rebecca Edwards, ANGELS IN THE MACHINERY: GENDER IN AMERICAN PARTY POLITICS FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1997

7.       Sandra Adkickes. TO BE YOUNG WAS VERY HEAVEN: WOMEN IN NEW YORK BEFORE THE FIRST WORLD WAR, 1997

8.       Joanne Passet, SEX RADICALS AND THE QUEST FOR FEMALE EQUALITY, 2003

9.       John C. Spurlock: FREE LOVE: MARRIAGE AND MIDDLE-CLASS RADICALISM IN AMERICA, 1825-1865, 1988

10.   Ann Braude, RADICAL SPIRITS: SPIRITUALISM AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN NINETEENTH CNETURY AMERICA, 1989

11.   Hendrik Hartog, MAN AND WIFE IN AMERICAN HISTORY: LEGAL HISTORY, 2000

12.   Nancy Cott, PUBLIC VOWS: A HISTORY OF MARRIAGE AND THE NATION, 2000

13.   Sylvia Hoffert, WHEN HENS CROW: THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA

14.   Judith Wellman, THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN FEMINISM, 2004

15.   Louise Michele Newman, WHITE WOMEN’S RIGHTS: THE RACIAL ORIGINS OF FEMINISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 1999

16.   Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE STRUGGLE FOR THE VOTE, 1850-1920, 1998

17.   Susan E. Marshall, SPLINTERED SISTERHOOD: GENDER AND CLASS IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST WOMAN SUFFRAGE, 1997.

18.   Jean H. Baker, ed. VOTES FOR WOMEN: THE STRUGGLE FOR SUFFRAGE REVISITED, 2002

 reading), 2000

19.   Ann Gordon et. al., eds., AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE VOTE, 1999

 

11/17     IMMIGRANT WOMEN, 1850-1930: ORAL HISTORY THEORY AND METHODS

 

List A Required:

1.       Virginia Yans-McLaughlin “Self as Metaphor…” in her volume, ed.,

IMMIGRATION RECONSIDERED, chapter nine: 254-290

2.       Review Essay: Annelise Orleck, "Gender, Race, and Citizenship Rights: New Views of an Ambivalent History" FEMINIST STUDIES, 29, 1 (Spring 2003): 95-102.

3.       Suzanne Sinke, DUTCH IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES, 1880-1920, 2002

 

List B Required: (I did not list these for the Reserve Book Room.)

1.       Judy Yung, UNBOUND FEET: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF CHINESE WOMEN IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1995 (For the second half of the twentieth century and another city, see: Xiolan Bao, HOLDING UP MORE THAN HALF THE SKY: CHINESE WOMEN GARMENT WORKERS IN NEW YORK CITY 1948-1992

2.       Tamara Hareven, FAMILY TIME AND INDUSTRIAL TIME, 1982

3.       Micaela Di Leonardo, VARIETIES OF ETHNIC EXPERIENCE: KINSHIP, CLASS AND GENDER AMONG CALIFORNIA ITALIAN-AMERICANS, 1984

4.       Vicki Ruiz,  FROM OUT OF THE SHADOWS: MEXICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, 1998, Introduction and chapters 1, 2, 3.

5.        Susan Glenn, DAUGHTERS OF THE SHTETL: LIFE AND LABOR IN THE IMMIGRANT GENERATION, 1990

6.       Annelise Orleck, COMON SENSE AND A LITTLE FIRE: WOMEN AND WORKING CLASS POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1900-1965, 1995.

7.       Kathy Peiss, CHEAP AMUSEMENTS: WORKING WOMEN AND LEISURE IN TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY NEW YORK, 1985

8.       Hasia Diner, ERIN’S DAUGHTERS IN AMERICA: IRISH IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 1983

9.       Janet Nolan, OURSELVES ALONE: WOMEN’S EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND, 1885-1920, 1989

10.   Sidney Stahl Weinberg, THE WORLD OF OUR MOTHERS: THE LIVES OF JEWISH IMMIGRANT WOMEN, 1988

11.   Judith Smith, FAMILY CONNECTIONS; A HISTORY OF ITALIAN AND JEWISH IMMIGRANT LIVES IN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, 1900-1940, 1985

12.   Virginia Yans-McLaughlin, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY: ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS IN BUFFALO, 1880-1930, 1977

13.   Miriam Cohen, WORKSHOP TO OFFICE: TWO GENERATIONS OF ITALIAN WOMEN IN NEW YORK CITY, 1992

14.   Robert Orsi, THANK YOU, ST. JUDE, 1996

15.   Robert Orsi, THE MADONNA OF 115TH STREET, FAITH AND COMMUNITY IN ITALIAN HARLEM, 1880-1950, 1985

16.   Suzanne Sinke, DUTCH IMMIGRANT WOMEN TO THE UNITED STATES, 1880-1920, 2002.

17.   Sarah Deutsch, WOMN AND THE CITY: GENDER, SPACE, AND POWER IN BOSTON, 1870-1940, 2000.

 

List B Required:

1.       David Dunaway and Willa K. Baum, ORAL HISTORY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ANTHOLOGY, 2nd edition, 1996

2.       Mary A. Wilson, "Potential, Potential, Potential: The Marriage of Oral History and the World Wide Web," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY, 88, 2(September 2001): 596-603.

3.       Robert Perks and Alistair Thomsom, eds., THE ORAL HISTORY READER, 1998

4.       S.B. Gluck and D. Patai, eds., WOMEN'S WORDS: THE FEMINIST PRACTICE OF ORAL HISTORY, 1991

5.       Linda Shopes, "Oral History and the Study of Communities: Problems, Paradoxes, and Possibilities," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 89, 2(Septembear 2002): 588-598.

6.       Devra Anne Weber, "Mexican Women on Strike: Memory, History and Oral Narrative," in Adelida Del Castillo, ed. BETWEEN BORDERS: ESSAYS ON MEXICANA/CHICANA HISTORY, 1990: 161-174

 

12/1    WOMEN AND REPRODUCTION: TWENTIETH CENTURY

 

List A Required:

1.       Ricki Solinger, BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS, 2001

2.       Linda Gordon, THE MORAL PROPERTY OF WOMEN, 2003, Parts Three and Four

 

List B Required:

1.       Joanna Schoen, REVIEW ESSAY “Reconceiving Abortion: Medical Practise, Women’s Access, and Feminist Politics before and after ROE v. WADE” FEMINIST STUDIES 26, 2(Summer 2000):349-376, outstanding example of a review essay on a group of books

2.       Laurie Shrage, "From Reproductive Rights to Reproductive Barbie: Post-Porn Modernism and Abortion,"FEMINIST STUDIES, 18, 1(spring 2002):61-93

3.       Suzanne White Junoch and Lara Marks, "Women's Trials: The Approval of the First Oral Contraceptive Pill in the United States and Great Britain," JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE AND ALLIED SCIENCES, 52, 2 (April 2002), 117-160

4.       Laura Doyle, "The Long Arm of Eugenics," AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY, 16, 3 (2004):520-535

5.       Leslie Reagan, WHEN ABORTION WAS A CRIME; WOMEN, MEDICINE AND LAW IN THE UNITED STATES, 1867-1973, 1997

6.       Rickie Solinger, WAKE UP LITTLE SUSIE: SINGLE PREGNANCY AND RACE BEFORE ROE V. WADE, 1992, 2000

7.       Rickie Solinger, THE ABORTIONIST: A WOMAN AGAINST THE LAW, 1996

8.       Laura Kaplan, THE STORY OF JANE: THE LEGENDARY UNDERGROUND FEMINIST ABORTION SERVICE, 1995

 

Recommended:

1.       Kristin Luker, ABORTION AND THE POLITICS OF MOTHERHOOD, 1984

2.       Barbara Melosh, STANGERS AND KIN:THE AMERICAN WAY OF ADOPTION, 2002 (This analysis differs substantially from Solinger's in BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS.)

3.       David J. Garrow, LIBERTY AND SEXUALITY: THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND THE MAKING OF ROE V. WADE, 1994

4.       Rickie Solinger, ed., ABORTION WARS: A HALF CENTURY OF STRUGGLE, 1950-2000, 1998

5.        Carol Joffe, DOCTORS OF CONSCIENCE: THE STRUGGLE TO PROVIDE ABORTION BEFORE AND AFTER ROE V. WADE, 1995

6.       Diane Tietjens Meyers, “The Rush to Motherhood…”SIGNS, 26,3(Spring 2001): 735-773

7.       Philip Reilly, THE SURGICAL SOLUTION: A HISTORY OF INVOLUNTARY STERILIZATION, 1991

8.       Joanna Schoen, “Between Choice and Coercion: Women and The Politics of Sterilization in North Carolina, 1929-1975,” JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S HISTORY, 13, 1(Spring 2001): 132-156

9.       Jennifer A. Nelson, “Abortions under Community Control: Feminism and the Politics of Reproduction among New York City’s Young Lords,” JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S HISTORY, 13, 1(Spring 2001): 157-180.

10.   Leslie J. Reagan,”Crossing the Border for Abortions: California Activists, Mexican Clinics, and the Creation of a Feminist Health Agency in the 1960s,” FEMINIST STUDIES 26, 2(Summer 2000): 323-348.

11.   Faye D. Ginsburg, CONTESTED LIVES: THE ABORTION DEBATE IN AN AMERICAN COMMUNITY, 1989, 1998

12.   Ellen Chesler, WOMAN OF VALOR: MARGARET SANGER AND THE BIRTH CONTROL MOVEMENT IN AMERICA, 1994

13.   Faye Wattleton, LIFE ON THE LINE, 1996

14.   Cynthia Gorney, ARTICLES OF FAITH: A FRONTLINE HISTORY OF THE ABORTION WARS, 2000

15.    Carol J.C. Maxwell, PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS IN AMERICA: MEANING, MOTIVAITION AND DIRECT ACTION, 2002.

 

12/8    SECOND WAVE FEMINISM/REVOLUTIONIZING GENDER AND SEXUALITY

 

List A  Required:

1.       Rosalyn Baxandall, “Re-visioning the Women’s Liberation Movement’s Narrative: Early Second Wave African American Feminists” FEMINIST STUDIES 27, 1(Spring 2001): 225-245

2.       Ruth Rosen, THE WORLD SPLIT OPEN: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America, 2000

3.       VanBurkleo, Part Three, chapters 10-12.

 

List B Required:

1.       Dan Horowitz, “Rethinking Betty Friedan,” AMERICAN QUARTERLY 48 (March 1996). This essay heralds Horowitz’s BETTY FRIEDAN AND THE MAKING OF THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, 1998.

2.       Lillian Faderman, ODD GIRLS AND TWILIGHT LOVERS; A HISTORY OF LESBIAN LIFE IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA, 1992.

3.       Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “`To Widen the Reach of our Love’: Autobiography, History, and Desire” FEMINST STUDIES 26, 1 (Spring 2000): 231-247

4.       Verta Taylor and Leila Rupp, “Women’s Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A reconsideration of Cultural Feminism,” SIGNS 19 (Autumn 1993): 32-60

5.       Madeleine Davis and Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy,  BOOTS OF LEATHER, SLIPPERS OF GOLD: THE HISTORY OF A LESBIAN COMMUNITY, 1993

6.       Leila J. Rupp, "Toward a Global History of Same-Sex Sexuality," JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SEXUALITY, 16 (2001): 287-302

7.       Diane H. Miller, FREEDOM TO DIFFER: THE SHAPING OF THE GAY AND LESBIAN STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, 1998

                                 

Recommended:

1.       Nancy Whittier, FEMINIST GENERATIONS: THE PERSISTENCE OF THE RADICAL WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, 1995

2.       Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Ann Snitow, eds., FEMINIST MEMOIR PROJECT, 1998

3.       Kate Weigand, RED FEMINISM…2001

4.       Dennis Deslippe, RIGHTS NOT ROSES: UNIONS AND THE RISE OF WORKING CLASS FEMINISM, 1945-1980, 2000

5.       Linda Gordon and Susan Reverby, DEAR SISTERS: DISPATCHES FROM THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT, 2000

6.       Alice Kessler-Harris, IN PURSUIT OF EQUITY: WOMEN, MEN, AND THE QUEST FOR ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICA, 2001

7.       Sandra Morgen, INTO OUR HANDS: THE WOMEN'S HEALTH MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1969-1990, 2002

8.       Joanne Meyerowitz, HOW SEX CHANGED, A HISTORY OF TRANSSEXUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 2002

 

WEBSITES IN US WOMEN'S HISTORY

These are now too numerous to list, but some of the more useful ones with many links are

www.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women

http://www.feminist.org

http://www.nau.edu/~wst/access/fhist/fhistsub.html

http://isd.usc.edu/~retter/main.html

http://womhist.binghamton.edu

 

BOOKS FOR PURCHASE:

I've ordered the following books at the Jeffrey Amherst College Store. These will also be on Reserve at the DuBois Library. List A required readings for the course will be handed out to you.

 

1.    Nancy Woloch, WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, 3RD edition, 2000 or Linda Kerber and Jane Sherron de Hart, eds., WOMEN’S AMERICA: REFOCUSING THE PAST, 5th edition, 2000

1.         Kathleen M. Brown, GOOD WIVES, NASTY WENCHES AND AMERICAN PATRIARCHS, 1996

2.         Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, GOOD WIVES, 1980, 1991

3.         Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A MIDWIFE’S TALE, 1990

4.         Cynthia Russett, SEXUAL SCIENCE, 1989

5.         Linda Gordon, THE MORAL PROPERTY OF WOMEN, 2003

6.         Jacqueline Jones, LABOR OF LOVE, LABOR OF SORROW, 2nd edition, 1995

7.         Jean Fagan Yellin ed., INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL by Harriet Jacobs, 2000

8.         Tera Hunter, `TO JOY MY FREEDOM’:SOUTHERN BLACK WOMEN’S LIVES AND LABORS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, 1997

9.          Nancy Cott, THE GROUNDING OF AMERICAN FEMINISM, 1987

10.      Rickie Solinger, BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS…2001

11.      Ruth Rosen, THE WORLD SPLIT OPEN…2000

12.      Sandra F. VanBurkleo, "BELONGING TO THE WORLD": WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL CULTURE, 2001

           

RESERVE BOOK ROOM BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Please Note: I have placed on Reserve all books on List A Required and all books on List B, except the extensivelist for 11/17. I will distribute most of the required articles, though many will also be on reserve.

 

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1.       Two written essays, ca. 8-12 pages, based on required reading from List A and at least two of the List B or Recommended books (three articles equal one book) for a week of your choice. Paper One is due on 10/27. Paper Two is due no later than  11/17.  These two papers constitute 50% of your grade.

2.       Preliminary Prospectus for Research Seminar paper for spring semester or a third essay, ca. 4-7 pages, based upon required readings for either week 12/1 or 12/8, due no later than 12/16. This Prospectus or essay amounts to 10% of your grade.

3.     For each Seminar meeting, you are required to read one book (or equivalent number of essays) and frequently one or two additional essays. In addition, every other week you select one of the required readings from List B for that week to synopsize for the class. It makes practical sense to reuse this reading for one of your written essays. I envision these informal presentations as taking 5-7 minutes. Synopses weigh 20% of your grade.

3.    Regular, active participation in discussion, 20% of grade.