The first book to investigate the rich and complex lives of rural women during the late colonial and early national periods. Jensen focuses on women in the Philadelphia hinterland and shows how they became an essential part of that area's rise to agricultural prominence.

Since the Revolution, Americans have debated what action the military should take toward civilians suspected of espionage, treason, or revolutionary activity. This important book--the first to present a comprehensive history of military surveillance in the United States--traces the evolution of America's internal security policy during the past two hundred years. Joan M. Jensen discusses how the federal government has used the army to intervene in domestic crises and how Americans have protested the violation of civil liberties and applied political pressure to limit military intervention in...

The first comprehensive view of women on the North American Plains, these essays explore the richness, variety, and complexity of their experiences. From prehistory to the present, the Great Plains have played a significant role in the lives of women who moved to or across them, cleaving to cultural ideas and patterns while adapting to the rigors of the region.Twelve essays--arranged chronologically within sub-regions--draw upon innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, including gender/transgender studies, decolonization of Native peoples, and the influence of nation states....

"The first comprehensive work highlighting the diversity of women's experiences on the North American Plains; twelve essays present women's perspectives from prehistory to the present, across the northern, central, and southern plains"--Provided by publisher.

Over the first half of the twentieth century, scientist and scholar Frances Densmore (1867-1957) visited thirty-five Native American tribes, recorded more than twenty-five hundred songs, amassed hundreds of artifacts and Native-crafted objects, and transcribed information about Native cultures. Her visits to indigenous groups included meetings with the Ojibwes, Lakotas, Dakotas, Northern Utes, Ho-chunks, Seminoles, and Makahs. A "New Woman" and a self-trained anthropologist, she not only influenced government attitudes toward indigenous cultures but also helped mold the field of anthropology....

Women have always been skilled at feeding their families, and historians have often studied the work of rural women on farms and in their homes. However, the stories of women who worked as agricultural researchers, producers, marketers, educators, and community organizers have not been told until now. Taking readers into the rural hinterlands of the rapidly urbanizing societies of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, the essays in Women in Agriculture tell the stories of a cadre of professional women who acted to bridge the growing rift between those who grew...