In Her Place: A Guide to St. Louis Women's History. (Book Reviews).In Her Place: A Guide to St. Louis Women's History ''This article is about the history of women. For information on the field of historical study, see Gender history. Women's history is the history of female human beings. Rights and equality Women's rights refers to the social and human rights of women. . By Katharine T. Corbett. (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, c. 1999. Pp. [xvi], 304. $22.50, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-883982-26-X.) This book attempts to survey the history of women in the Gateway City, without claiming to serve either as an encyclopedic en·cy·clo·pe·dic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an encyclopedia. 2. Embracing many subjects; comprehensive: "an ignorance almost as encyclopedic as his erudition" resource or as a comprehensive history. Not a great deal has been written on St. Louis women's history, and the unusual guidebook format (the chronologically arranged chapters feature introductory essays followed by short biographical or topical articles, each followed by a "sources" section with suggestions for further research) is perhaps ideal for an area of study in its infancy. Also unusual is that many of the short essays and one entire chapter are written by authors other than Corbett. Despite the lack of a continuous narrative thread A narrative thread, or plot thread or sometimes, but more ambigously, a storyline refers to particular elements and techniques of writing to center the story in the action or experience of characters rather than to relate a matter in a dry 'All knowing' sort of , the underlying themes of the book--economic (work at home vs. work for pay), social (class, religious, and ethnic/racial divides), and political/legal (women's changing status and rights)--come through quite well. Many essays naturally link to others; for instance, the African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. civil rights struggle is visible from both black and white perspectives as well as from individual and institutional viewpoints. For those interested in doing research on any aspect of St. Louis (women's) history, the source sections constitute a fine starting point, covering both secondary and primary sources and pointing out topics considered worthy of further study. The maps at the outset of each chapter are also useful, particularly for those not familiar with St. Louis. The book's range of biographies is excellent, from the better known (Harriet Scott [wife of Dred Scott], Josephine Baker, and Jessie Benton Fremont) to the lesser known but fascinating (Charlotte Rumbold, Lillie Rose Ernst, Arsania M. Williams, the Scypion sisters, and Philippine Duchesne). Interesting topical essays include those on the Gratiot Street prison Gratiot Street Prison (pronounced Grass-shut) was an American Civil War prison located in St. Louis, Missouri and was the largest war prison in Missouri.[1]. Run by the Union Army, it housed Confederate prisoners-of-war, confederate sympathizers, guerrillas, spies, and in the chapter on the Civil War and on red-light districts in the chapter on "Women in the Industrializing City." Most of the essays include analytical sections that place the topics within the larger framework of gender analysis. Drawbacks of the book include the absence of citations. Although detailed information such as sex ratios, teaching pay gaps, or the number of African American women in a given year is welcome, I found myself wishing for exact references in support of these statistics. Factual accuracy, however, was undermined directly only in a few glaring cases; for example, the English expulsion of Acadians occurred before 1763, not after (p. 5). For a study of a city so closely identified with and shaped by immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. , more attention to immigrant groups would have been a welcome addition. Brief references to the (German) brewery interest's influence on women's status (p. 198) and the extremely skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data sex ratio at one point among St. Louis's Italian Americans (p. 221) left this reader wanting to know more. Finally, the post-1945 period is almost an afterthought, and the period after 1965 is not covered not covered Health care adjective Referring to a procedure, test or other health service to which a policy holder or insurance beneficiary is not entitled under the terms of the policy or payment system–eg, Medicare. Cf Covered. at all. On the whole, the book does a good job of comparing and fairly treating women's situations and status in a variety of settings. There are excellent portrayals of colonial and early American racial and ethnic diversity, the paradoxes of freedom and slavery, and the distinctions between Protestant and Catholic cultures. The evenhanded e·ven·hand·ed adj. Showing no partiality; fair. e  ven·hand treatment of subjects such as Creole vs. American, Confederate vs.
Yankee, elite vs. working class, Catholic vs. Protestant, and black vs.
white, is commendable. Corbett's guidebook provides a good overview
of St. Louis women's history and will be useful for future scholars
in this area.
GRETCHEN GREEN Rockhurst University |
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