American Women's History

American Women’s History presents a comprehensive survey of women’s experience in the United States and North America from pre-European contact to the present. Centering women of color and incorporating issues of sexuality and gender, this student-friendly textbook draws from cutting-edge scholarship to provide a more inclusive and complex perspective on the conventional narrative of American women’s history. Throughout the text, the authors highlight the stories of important women in American history including Matoaka (Pocahontas), Hilletie van Olinda, Margaret Sanger, and Annelle Ponder.

Arranged chronologically, American Women’s History explores the major turning points in American women’s history while investigating various contexts surrounding race, work, politics, activism, and the construction of self. Concise chapters cover a uniquely wide range of topics, such as the roles of Indigenous women in North American cultures, the ways women participated in the American Revolution, the lives of women of color in the antebellum South and their experiences with slave resistance and rebellion, the radical transformation brought on by Black women during Reconstruction, and the activism of women before and after suffrage was won.

Designed for both one- and two-semester U.S. history courses, American Women’s History is an ideal resource for instructors looking for a streamlined textbook that will complement primary sources and will invite engagement and reflection for students.