Grunwald, L. &
Adler, S.L. (Eds.). (2005). Women’s
Letters America from the Revolutionary War to the Present. (2005) New York: The Dial Press.
Scope: As the
name suggests, Women’s Letters, America
from the Revolutionary War to the Present is a collection of letters
written by women. Spanning the history
of the United States from the American Revolutionary War to 2004, this anthology
provides an insight into the lives of Americans ranging from the daily tasks of
raising a family to the experiences of war.
It captures moments of love and hope between friends and lovers and also
adulation of celebrities. Much has
happened in the years covered by this collection of letters and not every event
is chronicled but this compilation provides a wide range of events through the
eyes of the women who lived through them.
These letters present a collection of primary sources and first hand
accounts of historical events seen through the eyes of the contemporaries of
the events.
Audience: The
intended audience is the general public.
While it may appeal to those interested in women’s studies and
histories, it also provides a wide range of experiences that are of interest to
all historians and to many armchair historians.
By providing letters surrounding a wide range of events written by women
of all different backgrounds, this book also provides an appeal to a wide
audience. This book provides an index
allowing information seekers to look specifically for particular events or
people
Timeliness: The
title claims to present letters to the present, which at the time of publishing
was 2005. The letters from 1980 through
2005 are quite sparse, though there are some letters written at the time of
September 11, 2001 that are touching and relevant. Likely
due to the fact that contemporaries may be less likely to reveal the intimate
details of their lives by sharing personal letters, or perhaps because almost
everything is available online, the present is a bit of a stretch. However, this provides a wonderful history of
the United States since the Revolutionary War.
This is not the history written and rewritten by the textbooks; these
are glimpses into the lives of the women who lived through these events that we
now see as history.
Authority: The
editors, Lisa Grunwald and Stephen Adler have both worked as magazine editors;
most recently Steven Adler is the Editor-in Chief of Reuters (Thomson Reuters,
2011). According to her linked in
profile, Lisa Grunwald is a former editor at Esquire Magazine and a novelist. Each of these editors lends credibility to
these collections but it is truly the women writing the letters that present
the authority. These women write letters
of their own lives and the events surrounding.
The women who wrote these letters are every day women but they are also
notable women, including first ladies, suffragettes, Supreme Court Justices, presidential
mistresses, slaves, writers, wives, mothers, lovers, wives of celebrities, fans
of celebrities, family members of murderers and of murder victims. There is a letter from Grace Brown, a murder
victim at the turn of the twentieth century (2005, 441). It was the words of Grace that helped convict
her murderer. Each of these women was an
authority in the life she lived; each letter simply presents the world as she
sees it.
Objectivity: One could not claim that any of these letters
were objective. The letters were not
necessary intended to be an objective vision of contemporary events. They were
conversations between friends, confidantes, lovers - letters providing personal
reflections and opinions. Yet, this
frankness and lack of objectivity is the appeal of this collection. Any book of
history presents a history with a bias and it is likely that the letters
presented represent ideals and preferences of the editors. In spite of this,
Women’s Letters is a wonderful collection of letters from women throughout the
history of the United States of America.
References:
Grunwald, Lisa.
(n.d.). In LinkedIn Profile. Retrieved
October 17, 2013, from http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lisa-grunwald/21/577/4a9.
Thomson Reuters. (2011, Feb 7). Stephen
J. Adler named Editor-in Chief of Reuter News; David A. Schlesinger to take
Senior Role in China. Retrieved
from: http://thomsonreuters.com/press-releases/022011/391499.
Letters are fantastic primary sources for historical research. While seldom objective, they are often passionate and the bias/point of view of the writer is her(his) reality. Such background information can really be helpful in looking at an event of person. (I have letters from a great uncle written to my grandmother while he was fighting in WWI, and I recently found letters my father had written to my mother during WWII when he was in the Pacific theater. Both provided surprises and insights into men I thought I knew.) My problem with older missives is that I can seldom decipher the beautiful handwriting. Books of letters are better that way. Thanks for the title.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis of the authority and objectivity of the letters. How true; primary resources almost certainly will have some bias or skew. Historians must muck through this truth and make use of it at times. For many historians, opinions are probably just as valuable as facts regarding the past. With so many letters in this book, are there any instances where there are multiple letters discuss the same topics? It would be great to see the methods they used for selecting as well as finding these letters! It is certainly a lesser seen side of history (for the worse). Hopefully our understanding of history continues to change as we hear stories that mainstream history had previously ignored.
ReplyDeleteThere are multiple letters from many different events, written by different people. This is really interesting. In reading the letters surround 9/11, it was interesting to me that none of the letters presented the horrific events in detail. Perhaps because anyone reading the letter would know the details; rather it was the reaction to the events. A particular favorite was a letter of a young girl who wrote to the firefighters and police officers to thank them. It captured the mood of that event as well as any documentary of the actual event could present.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting source! The power of primary resources. Your comment about not describing the actual events of 9/11 is interesting. I think you are correct - those reading the letters understand what happened. It will be interesting to see what future historians think of the letters. We lived that history, either directly or indirectly, but they will/have not. I think this source could lend itself well to constant updates with new editions. If we consider events from around the world, there is a never ending source of conversation. However, now it is email which just isn't quite the same thing.
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