In 1975, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg published "The Female World of Love and Ritual, and changed how my generation of feminists understood the practice of history
This was so good, maybe you should think about doing a book of essays that builds on its insights about the development of women's history and the history of sexuality and feminist politics. I especially liked the emphasis on the archival turn and how that impacted the development of the fields.
I love this piece, which reminded me of my first earth-shaking encounter with “Female World” in 1980, in Laramie, Wyoming. But I wonder about that Beinecke Library archivist who told you in 1978 that you were the first to look at women’s letters and diaries in the Coe Collection. Johnny Faragher and Christine Stansell published “Women and Their Families on the Overland Trail to California and Oregon,” based on that collection, in Feminist Studies in 1975, when they were both Yale grad students. Faragher published his classic WOMEN AND MEN ON THE OVERLAND TRAIL in 1979, two years after he finished his Ph.D. Somewhat amazingly, given the gender politics of the American historical profession at the time, the book won the OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Prize (!?!) in 1980. By the time you looked at the Coe holdings in 1978, Faragher was at Mt. Holyoke. I wonder if he was already teaching women’s history by then? Thanks for your great morning wake-ups, Claire!
Thanks for the memories. It was an important book for me too. In 1975, I was living and teaching in Monterey, about 100 miles south of Berkeley. I'd just come out, was in a small collective putting out a monthly newspaper (Woman Tide), and had been teaching courses in women's studies in a small Women's Reentry program at Monterey Community College. A few years later, I co-founded an MA in Women's Studies at Antioch San Francisco. It was a pretty exciting time. We could have crossed paths!
Thanks, Claire--this is a fabulous genealogy of women's history & the history of sexuality, and perfect timing for my purposes: I'm going to assign it to my History of Sexuality in America students next week when we read Charity & Sylvia.
This was so good, maybe you should think about doing a book of essays that builds on its insights about the development of women's history and the history of sexuality and feminist politics. I especially liked the emphasis on the archival turn and how that impacted the development of the fields.
I love this piece, which reminded me of my first earth-shaking encounter with “Female World” in 1980, in Laramie, Wyoming. But I wonder about that Beinecke Library archivist who told you in 1978 that you were the first to look at women’s letters and diaries in the Coe Collection. Johnny Faragher and Christine Stansell published “Women and Their Families on the Overland Trail to California and Oregon,” based on that collection, in Feminist Studies in 1975, when they were both Yale grad students. Faragher published his classic WOMEN AND MEN ON THE OVERLAND TRAIL in 1979, two years after he finished his Ph.D. Somewhat amazingly, given the gender politics of the American historical profession at the time, the book won the OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Prize (!?!) in 1980. By the time you looked at the Coe holdings in 1978, Faragher was at Mt. Holyoke. I wonder if he was already teaching women’s history by then? Thanks for your great morning wake-ups, Claire!
Thanks for the memories. It was an important book for me too. In 1975, I was living and teaching in Monterey, about 100 miles south of Berkeley. I'd just come out, was in a small collective putting out a monthly newspaper (Woman Tide), and had been teaching courses in women's studies in a small Women's Reentry program at Monterey Community College. A few years later, I co-founded an MA in Women's Studies at Antioch San Francisco. It was a pretty exciting time. We could have crossed paths!
Thanks, Claire--this is a fabulous genealogy of women's history & the history of sexuality, and perfect timing for my purposes: I'm going to assign it to my History of Sexuality in America students next week when we read Charity & Sylvia.