The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I

by Lynn Dumenil Narrated by Susan Hanfield

Overview

In tracing the rise of the modern idea of the American “new woman,” Lynn Dumenil examines World War I's surprising impact on women and, in turn, women's impact on the war.

Telling the stories of a diverse group of women, including African Americans, dissidents, pacifists, reformers, and industrial workers, Dumenil explores both the roadblocks and opportunities they faced.

By using a gendered approach to the war, she offers a complex rendering of the ways in which the United States mobilized for the coming battle and how American women helped support the largest military endeavor in the nation's history. Arguing that in contrast to prevailing notions that military service defines citizenship, Dumenil shows how women activists staked their claim to loyal citizenship by framing women's war work as industrial workers, home-front volunteers, overseas nurses, and support personnel as “the second line of defense.”

Extensively researched and drawing upon popular culture sources as well as archival material, The Second Line of Defense offers a comprehensive study of American women and war and frames them in the broader context of the social, cultural, and political history of the era.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

[A] unique and previously unexplored view into a rarely examined history.—Library Journal

With an emphasis on African-American women, the author highlights the ways that these resourceful individuals proved their patriotism in the workplace, unions, suffrage, and the public square during [World War I]. Of particular importance is Dumenil's analysis of women's roles in films. . . . Recommended.—Choice

Dumenil, in this fresh interpretation, revises and updates the question of women's enfranchisement by putting suffrage history into conversation with histories of women's labor in the war.—Women's Review of Books

Dumenil establishes without a doubt in this important overview that women provided matchless, indispensable service in a time of national crisis. The Second Line of Defense re-creates the vibrant, bustling, complex world that women carried upon their shoulders. Readers have no further excuse not to see them.—The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

An indispensable study of U.S. women's experiences and efforts during World War I.—Journal of Southern History

A sweeping synthesis of American women's responses to their country's involvement in World War I.—LABOUR

An overview of the research on American women's wartime experiences with a finely crafted text accessible to scholars, students, and the general public.—Journal of Military History

Dumenil provide[s] [an] excellent [analysis] that depict[s] the numerous ways in which American women overturned the polite social conventions that kept men and women separated in public spaces. The visibility of women in war work on the home front in factories and as citizen-soldiers in France challenged Victorian and Edwardian gender norms and, ultimately, influenced federal policy to extend the vote to American women.—U.S. Military History Review

MARCH 2017 - AudioFile

Narrator Susan Hanfield does a splendid job conveying WWI and the many women who made an immense impact on winning it. She skillfully employs an old-fashioned style for the quotes, and for the narrative she uses a contemporary delivery that enhances the descriptions of women ranging from nurses to telephone operators to prostitutes. The women who pushed against the limits society imposed on “the weaker sex” include elites, suffragettes, pacifists, African-Americans, and immigrants, all of whom have their say with distinction from Hanfield. Listeners will hear fascinating first-person accounts from women reveling in their new more exciting and challenging lives. The audio version is ideal for a book overflowing with names, dates, acronyms, and numerous notes of explanation. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169780352
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	02/13/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos