Glenda Riley

Until the mid 1970s, frontierswomen appeared in histories of the American West only as one-dimensional stereotypes or not at all. The intention of this study is to demonstrate not only that women did play highly significant and multifaceted roles in the development of the American West but also that their lives as settlers displayed fairly consistent patterns which transcended geographic sections of the frontier. Further, the author maintains that...

"The American West has had the highest divorce rate in the world from the 1870's to the present. In examining why marriages dissolve so frequently in the West, this volume is the first to explore the topic in a systematic, scholarly manner. It looks at a wide range of courtship and marriage practices among Anglos, Native Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans. In studying men and women across cultural and ethnic lines, Riley argues that traditions...

Explores the lives of eleven women, including Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Mary Ellen Pleasant, and Abigail Scott Duniway