U.S. History As Women's History: New Feminist Essays (1995)

Loosely drawn together around themes of power and knowledge these essays reflect concerns that are relatively new for women's historians--mainly, about the ways in which gendered institutions and forms of knowledge both construct and are influenced by policy-making and state formation. While the editors have made no pretense of being either inclusive or definitive in their choice of articles, they see the final selection as evidence that women's history has begun to "radically unsettle historical narratives as they had been written," and has reached the "fourth stage of development predicted by Lerner nearly two decades ago." "Individually and together," the editors write, "these essays seek to discover how gender serves to legitimize particular constructions of power and knowledge, to meld these into accepted practice and state policy." (pp. 6-7)

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I must admit that overall I did not find the book's contents to be as "radically unsettling" as I had hoped. There is a great deal here that is about organizations, about white people, about elite women, about the Progressive era and beyond and about some version of "maternalism." But there are no essays that deal centrally with sexuality or queer theory, none that address the important questions being raised about Native Americans or westward expansion or, indeed, the experience of nation-building in the West. Nor am I convinced that traditional political or policy historians will find this volume more inescapable than previous ones in its challenges to their (still dominant) narratives. My point here is not that any volume of women's history could have covered the range of topics currently being explored or imagined; rather it is that this particular project, in both its conception and execution, reflects the experience and thinking of a cohort of scholars perhaps more than its editors admit.

U.S. History as Women's History: New Feminist Essays, edited by Linda K. Kerber, Alice Kessler-Harris, and Kathryn Kish Sklar is a worthy tribute to Gerda Lerner's life and contributions to the historical profession. Far more eloquently than I have done, the editors describe and assess the history and state of women's history in a clear and useful introduction. The fifteen articles included are grouped under three general categories "State Formation," "Power," and "Knowledge." The authors represent some of the most eminent, respected, senior scholars in women's history in the U.S. today. Along with Gerda Lerner, they have contributed not only to creating the field of women's history, but also establishing the highest standards for those of us who follow. One of the characteristics of the volume that I found very appealing was the analytical and methodological range. An "outsider" reading this volume would have a hard time describing an orthodoxy in women's history. There are institutional histories, biographies, literary analysis/reader response, psycho-history, legal histories. ... I must admit that reading every single piece in this anthology was extremely satisfying and useful. Each piece contributes to and continues the creation of knowledge on women and gender in United States history.

Given Gerda Lerner's importance to the field of women's history--and her significance to the field of U.S. history more generally--to say that a collection of essays in her honor is worthy of its honoree is high praise. ... This collection highlights several distinguished historians from the generation immediately following her, scholars who have also pushed the field in new directions. ... [It] is divided into three sections: "State Formation," "Power," and "Knowledge." It is impossible in the compass of a review to mention all its strengths and very difficult to single out those contributions that seem most impressive. It should be stated at the outset that in the opinion of this reviewer there is not a weak link in the chain. ... My major criticism is the fact that the collection leaves out so much of the female experience in the United States. It will surely be seen--and seen appropriately--as defining the state of the art after a generation of writing on the history of American women. I therefore think that the lacunae are regrettable. Nothing about working-class women and their unions. Nothing about women in their domestic lives. And nothing about women in their religious and spiritual lives. This latter omission is especially unfortunate, given what Lerner argues in The Creation of Feminist Consciousness about the primacy of religion as an arena for female self-authorization up to the modern period.