AMERICA'S WOMEN 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines

Jane Alexander reads this all-encompassing history of American women with just the right amount of humor, indignation, wonder, and disbelief. Covering the history of women in the U.S.--from the time the first female European agreed to board a ship to the New World to modern times--each chapter looks at changing roles and mores through actual journal accounts and historical documents from real women's lives. What could have been a stiff history of feminism instead reads more like fiction, as Collins chronicles lives and times that changed dramatically over 400 years, thanks to the courage of the women who lived them. Alexander is a good match for Collins's style, lending an even pace, great warmth, and a slightly scholarly voice to the history. H.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]