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tophat8855's review against another edition
3.0
At 33, I do not believe I am the correct demographic for this book, but I do look forward to being an older woman in the future. In general, this is a collection of stories of "older" women. "Older" depends on the era- at some points in the book, it means women in their 30s and other times, it's 80s/90s. It ended up being a history of women in general in America, leaving out teens and 20-somethings. It leans liberal, but includes conservative women politicians. Collins tries to include non-white women and does better earlier in the book with that. It doesn't go particularly deep- it would be a good stepping stone of a book if you wanted to go and read more about a particular woman.
jessi_c's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
Topics jump all over the place, but puts just enough context into perspective. Still a great comprehensive read.
heregrim's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting look into the historiography of how our study of the trends of historical research has gone.
tristanpej's review against another edition
5.0
If you are an American historian, having this around to refer to when thinking about other areas is definitely recommended.
plaidpladd's review against another edition
3.0
This book was really interesting, and I learned a lot. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been better organized and edited. A lot of space was devoted to profiles of specific famous older women, which could have been shortened, and the organization within each chapter was really scattered.
jengennari's review against another edition
4.0
A comprehensive history of older U.S. women from the 1630s to 2017. Lots of it I already knew, but by then end I enjoyed Collins' ability to be conversational and highlight key individual accomplishments/barriers/victories. A reminder of how far we've come. (And the one fact that blew me away--wearing pants in the senate chambers wasn't allowed until 1993???)
lukescalone's review against another edition
3.0
Although written ten years ago, this is already a dated collection of essays on American historiography--both from a thematic angle and from a chronological angle. I was especially interested in the essays on the American West, American religious history, and cultural history.
rocomama's review against another edition
The way this author perpetuates racism by focusing on individuals instead of holding institutions accountable for equality made me need to put this book down. The two examples that bothered me the most were Whitewashing the Jim Crow south as “it was difficult for Black men to get jobs” and referring to people as “slaves” as if generations of enslavement and violence perpetrated against them denotes their whole being.
To my mind, “American history” includes more than white people with a nod to the experiences of folks outside of whiteness. I was excited to learn more about my foremothers, but this book is too limited, not worth my time.
To my mind, “American history” includes more than white people with a nod to the experiences of folks outside of whiteness. I was excited to learn more about my foremothers, but this book is too limited, not worth my time.