Bonds of Community: The Lives of Farm Women in Nineteenth-Century New York / Edition 1

by Nancy Grey Osterud

Overview

Women held a central place in long-settled rural communities like the Nanticoke Valley in upstate New York during the late nineteenth century. Their lives were limited by the bonds of kinship and labor, but farm women found strength in these bonds as well. Although they lacked control over land and were second-class citizens, these rural women did not occupy a "separate sphere." Individually and collectively, they responded to inequality by actively enlarging the dimensions of sharing in their relationships with men.

Nancy Grey Osterud uses a rich store of diaries, letters, and other first-person documents, in addition to public and organizational records, to reconstruct the everyday lives of ordinary women of the past. Exploring large questions within the confines of a single community, she analyzes the ways in which notions of gender structured women's interactions with their families and neighbors, their place in the farm family economy, and their participation in organized community activities.

Rare turn-of-the-century photographs of the rural landscape, formal and informal family portraits, and scenes of daily life and labor add a special dimension to Bonds of Community. It should find a ready audience among women's historians, labor historians, rural historians, and historians of New York State.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801497988
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/21/1991
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.88(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nancy Grey Osterud is Assistant Professor of History at San Jose State University.

Editorial Reviews

In Bonds of the Community Nancy Grey Osterud draws a richly textured account of the lives of nineteenth-century farm people of the Nanticoke Valley in New York State.

-- "Contemporary Sociology"

Osterud's work deserves careful attention from historians of women, rural life, and nineteenth-century American.

-- "American Historical Review"

From the Publisher

"Osterud's work deserves careful attention from historians of women, rural life, and nineteenth-century American."

American Historical Review

"In Bonds of the Community Nancy Grey Osterud draws a richly textured account of the lives of nineteenth-century farm people of the Nanticoke Valley in New York State."

Contemporary Sociology

Twelve papers represent a state-of-the-art survey of all aspects of bone mechanics, beginning with the biology and composition of bone and covering mechanical properties, stress analysis, bone prosthesis and implants, techniques and theories of bone remodeling, experimental techniques. The Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University is the main connection among the contributors. Osterud (history, San Jose State U.) used diaries, letters, and other primary sources together with public and organizational records to construct this picture of women's lives. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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