Women's Oral History: The "Frontiers" Reader by Susan H. Armitage, Patricia Hart, Karen Weathermon

Abstract

the information provided onWilliam E.Myers and his role as chief ethnologist for theNorth American Indian project. It isunfortunate that, for reasons outlined in the introduction, we are not able to learnmore ofMyers's personal insightson theproject and on Native subjects in particular. Certainly no stranger to thismaterial, Gid leyhas mined a rich trove of letters,reports, magazine and newspaper articles, and other documents to craftan edited volume with po tential appeal fora diverse readership. In broad view, his selections, though of uneven length and content, affirmthe underlying humanism thatCurtis and otherprincipals brought to their study.They also underscore the contradictions inherentintheproject and itsprincipal architect, and in thisvein the limited commentary Gidley provides will likely leavemany readerswanting more. Also noteworthy istheuse ofphotographs. Placement of thephotographs togetheras a series rather than in chapter contexts, combined with their limited integration into theauthor's edito rialcomments, renders them more afterthought than central feature.Ultimately, it is the refined image ofCurtis the man? as prescient scholar photographer, superb outdoorsman, fearless traveler, quintessential westerner, and humanist ? that endures andmakes thisvolume worthy of attention. Women sOral History: The Frontiers Reader Edited by Susan H. Armitage, with Patricia Hart and Karen Weathermon University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2002. Photographs, notes, index. 408 pages. $29.95 paper. Reviewed by Laura McCreery University ofCalifornia, Berkeley Some practitioners of oral history sub scribe to the notion of a thirty-yearrule. That is,theyhave come tobelieve ittakes about thirtyyears after a major historic event for society to look that event squarely in the eye. Any lesser span of time is somehow awkward; the aftermath of the event is too evident, the participants too raw, and public opinion too subjective. But leta fullgeneration pass, and the time fororal historybecomes ripe.Think of the civil rights advances of the 1960s or theheight of theVietnam War in the early 1970s. There's a certainmoment inWomen sOral History: The FrontiersReader when one realizes with fullforce that the researchmethod we call women's oral historynow meets the thirty-year test.Here is the anthology that recollects and deconstructs thatmoment, that fork in the road, when interviews on women's lives were pronounced distinctfrommen's. The assessment ofwhere things started and what has changed comes from key participants and witnesses in their own words, making the book a sort of meta-history ofwomen's oral research on the livesof otherwomen. Central to this longview is theessay "Reflec tions onWomen's Oral History," based on an electronic exchange between theanthology's lead editor, Susan H. Armitage, and Sherna Berger Gluck, both professors of history and women's studieswho have shaped thisconceptfrom itsin ception.The book consistsof reprints from issues of the women's studies journalFrontierspublished between 1977and 1998,alongwithArmitage's and Gluck's recent comments on the state of women's oral history. (The electronic discussion with one 338 OHQ vol. 105, no. 2 another isodd, though,forpeople who have built their careers on live conversations.) The big questions are familiar. What are the pros and cons ofbeing an insideror an outsider among those you interview? What are the con siderations before starting a project, and what are the responsibilities during and after?How can we best make allowances for cultural and language issues? Finally, as Armitage asks, "Is therereallya female subculture in all times and places, and does it really function as a defense againstmale dominance?" (p. 68) The treatment of some questions is thoughtful and routine, but thematter ofwomen's subculture has the scholars politely sparring. We need this. Do not fear thatWomen sOral History is solely an exercise in academic navel-gazing, which the authors caution against. The collec tion is farbroader than a scholarly assessment. Itsthreeparts ? Basic Approaches, Oral History Applications, and Oral History Discoveries and Insights ? include myriad voices frommany academic communities, and the interviewees described in the essays range from coal-mine strikersandmillworkers to farm women, Paiute Indians, and urban Chicanas. A number of the essays have been antholo gized or developed into book-length studies since theiroriginal appearance inFrontiers. Judy Yung's studyofherChinese American forebears, Sally Roesch Wagner's biography of suffragist Matilda Joslin Gage, andAmy Kesselman's work onNorthwest shipyardworkers inPortland and Vancouver (presented here with co-authors Tina Tau...