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A review by sde
Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden
4.0
This is a pick for my non-fiction book club. The hasn't met yet, so I will be curious about what others think.
This is the sort of book I often don't finish - often historical non-fiction and biographies on an interesting topic often get bogged down in too much historical detail. But this one didn't. Or maybe it's because I am familiar with both Smith College and Upstate New York, so I found those details more fascinating than usual.
The book uses letters, oral histories, newspaper accounts and talking to people to recreate the year that two Smith graduates spent teaching in rural Colorado in the early 20th century. It was interesting to hear about their experiences. I also enjoyed reading about the kids and seeing that students were no worse nor no better than they are now.
The text created a picture of how hard life was in the West/frontier. But it also showed how women's lives there, as brutal as they were, were also more free in many ways than in the restrained East, especially for upperclass women like Ros and Dorothy. Women were recognized as valuable players in the life of the West.
I appreciated how the author used endnotes detailing what sources she used for each section, rather than the generic listing of sources for a chapter that is all too common today. It will be relatively easy for students and others to recreate her work and find the sources she used. (Except for the sources that are still held by her family. Donate those to an archives, please!)
This is the sort of book I often don't finish - often historical non-fiction and biographies on an interesting topic often get bogged down in too much historical detail. But this one didn't. Or maybe it's because I am familiar with both Smith College and Upstate New York, so I found those details more fascinating than usual.
The book uses letters, oral histories, newspaper accounts and talking to people to recreate the year that two Smith graduates spent teaching in rural Colorado in the early 20th century. It was interesting to hear about their experiences. I also enjoyed reading about the kids and seeing that students were no worse nor no better than they are now.
The text created a picture of how hard life was in the West/frontier. But it also showed how women's lives there, as brutal as they were, were also more free in many ways than in the restrained East, especially for upperclass women like Ros and Dorothy. Women were recognized as valuable players in the life of the West.
I appreciated how the author used endnotes detailing what sources she used for each section, rather than the generic listing of sources for a chapter that is all too common today. It will be relatively easy for students and others to recreate her work and find the sources she used. (Except for the sources that are still held by her family. Donate those to an archives, please!)