Clio's Southern Sisters: Interviews with Leaders of the Southern Association for Women Historians.

Clio's Southern Sisters: Interviews with Leaders of the Southern Association for Women Historians. Edited by Constance B. Schulz and Elizabeth Hayes Turner. Southern Women. (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, c. 2004. Pp. xviii, 276. $44.95, ISBN 0-8262-1541-6.)

Clio's Southern Sisters: Interviews with Leaders of the Southern Association for Women Historians chronicles not only the story of the Southern Association for Women Historians (SAWH) but also a pivotal period in the history of American women. Members of the SAWH conducted oral history interviews with fifteen of the organization' s leaders to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. The interviewees' recollections illustrate vividly the changing experiences of women in the historical profession since the 1960s.

The SAWH held its first gathering in a basement room during the meeting of the Southern Historical Association (SHA) in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1970. Founded as a regional affiliate of the national Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession, the SAWH has always maintained a close but fiercely independent relationship with the SHA. The interviews trace the organization's development: its formal establishment and bylaws, its institutional homes, and its growing list of activities. For SAWH members, the chronicling of these events is interesting in itself.

For other readers, a greater value of the book likely lies in the personal stories of fifteen female historians coming of age in the middle of the twentieth century. Particularly remarkable are the tales of graduate school and employment in the 1950s and 1960s. Women students were held to high standards, according to Judith F. Gentry: "[F]or women to be acceptable they had to be the very, very best" (p. 130). Major professors could be both patronizing and kind. When Arnita A. Jones decided to marry a fellow graduate student, she recalled, "his graduate advisor went to call on my graduate advisor as in the groom' s parents calling on the bride' s.... it really was a very old-fashioned paternalism" (p. 80). The job market also presented difficulties. Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg remembered that her advisor consulted with her father and the men together concluded that she should decline a position that had been offered to her. When Carol K. Bleser applied for jobs, "the rejections stated that there were no women in their institutions" (p. 138). With persistent women such as Anne Firor Scott, the first woman hired in the history department at the University of North Carolina, however, the number of woman historians increased steadily.

The third major contribution of the study is the way in which the history of the SAWH reflects many of the tensions and struggles that accompanied women's movement into the historical profession. The SAWH was founded partly out of frustration with the SHA, which seldom included women or African Americans on its programs and committees or as officers. Members of the SAWH, such as Mollie C. Davis, a civil rights activist, pointed out such omissions early, and they often and readily proposed women for SHA activities. The SAWH membership disagreed over the boycott of states that had not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Some members believed that women in non-ratifying states needed to hear the message of the SAWH and so did not support the boycott, while others favored the action and reacted strongly when the SHA moved a meeting to Georgia.

As an organization created primarily for women, the SAWH has encountered difficulties of several varieties. Judith Gentry recalled the SAWH began to give its famous parties in part so that the men in SHA "would realize we weren't ogres" (p. 125). The annual address began soon thereafter, showcasing superb women's scholarship. The SAWH established its book prizes in the 1980s. Carol Bleser fondly recalled historian Willie Lee Rose and the opposition--"hostility"--that came with establishing the prize in her name exclusively for women (p. 152). The SAWH has long had male members, and a name change in 1983, to the Southern Association for Women Historians, reflected its inclusivity. Betty Brandon commented: "[I]t's not restricted to women, but it's for women and for anyone who supports women's work in this regard" (p. 195).

The officers of the SAWH are to be commended for this oral history project, deposited at the University of North Carolina. As any transcription must be, the book is an imperfect representation of the interviews. It is a primary source, repetitive at times, and scholars will undoubtedly want to consult the original transcripts. Because the interviews were conducted primarily in the mid-1990s, there is little on the Southern Conferences on Women's History, held triennially since 1988, and the resulting excellent books of articles. The lack of an index creates difficulties. But the story is ultimately one of triumph, and the reader finishes with a sense of gratitude both for the women who held fast thirty-five years ago and for those who took the time to record their stories.

REBECCA SHARPLESS

Baylor University