Frontiers of Femininity: A New Historical Geography of the Ninteenth-Century American West

Morin (geography, Bucknell U.) brings together revised essays previously published in journals or books from 1998 to 2002 that consider how women's gender identities were produced through their experiences of places in nineteenth century North America. She critically examines the writings of women who traveled or lived in the American West or Mexico during this time, including British naturalists, American journalists, and a Native American tribal leader, for how discourses about Victorian gender relations and imperial geographies influenced their writings as they traveled through parks, cities, train stations, Native American reservations, farms and ranches, and the mountains of northern Mexico. Writings include published travelogues, newspaper reports, letters, and diaries, by women such as Isabella Bird, Therese Longworth, Rose Kingsley, Rose Pender, Rosalie La Flesche Farley, Miriam Leslie, Sara Lipincott, Constance Gordon Cumming, Marianne North, and Theodora Guest. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)