Glenda Riley

A biography of America's greatest female sharpshooter delves beneath her popular image to reveal a conservative but competitive woman who wanted to succeed.

The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley

"Did the West offer women a place to grow, providing opportunities for more equitable social relationships, greater political rights, and economic independence? The answer is found in this unique blend of more than 90 primary documents, in which the women's own words tell the story, combined with 11 selected essays by noted historian Glenda Riley. A number of themes pervade the articles and documents presented here. The selections discuss stereotypes of western women, the ethnic and racial backgrounds of western women, women's migration experiences, female migrants' relations with Native Americans, and women's contributions inside and outside the home as the West was settled."--Goodreads

Women in the American West

A Place to Grow

In studying men and women across cultural and ethnic lines, Riley argues that traditions often overlapped each other but never gave rise to widely accepted norms.

Building and Breaking Families in the American West

Women Colonizing the American West and Kenya, 1840-1940

Taking Land, Breaking Land

Richard W. Etulain

Generations of Americans have seen the West as beyond federal control and direction. But the national government’s presence in the West dates to before Lewis and Clark, and since 1789 a number of U.S. presidents have had a penetrating and long-lasting impact on the region. In Presidents Who Shaped the American West, noted historians Glenda Riley and Richard W. Etulain present startling analyses of chief executives and their policies, illuminating the long reach of presidential power. The authors begin each chapter by sketching a particular president’s biography and explaining the political context in which he operated while in office. They then consider overarching actions and policies that affected both the nation and the region during the president’s administration, such as Thomas Jefferson’s augmentation of the West via the Louisiana Purchase, and Andrew Jackson’s removal of American Indians from the Southeast to “Indian Country” in the West. Abraham Lincoln’s promotion of the Homestead Act, a transcontinental railroad, and western territories and states free of slavery marked further extensions of presidential power in the region. Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation efforts and Jimmy Carter’s expansion of earlier policies reflected growing public concern with the West’s finite natural resources and fragile natural environment. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s highway program, and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society funneled federal funding into the West. In return for this largesse, some argued, the West paid the price of increased federal hegemony, and Ronald Reagan’s presidency arguably curbed that power. Riley and Etulain also discuss the most recent presidential terms and the region’s growing political power in Congress and the federal bureaucracy. With an accessible approach, Presidents Who Shaped the American West establishes the crucial and formative nature of the relationship between the White House and the West—and will encourage readers to continue examining this relationship.

Presidents Who Shaped the American West

With a widowed mother and six siblings, Annie Oakley first became a trapper, hunter, and sharpshooter simply to put food on the table. Yet her genius with the gun eventually led to her stardom in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The archetypal western woman, Annie Oakley urged women to take up shooting to procure food, protect themselves, and enjoy healthy exercise, yet she was also the proper Victorian lady, demurely dressed and skeptical about the value of women’s suffrage. Glenda Riley presents the first interpretive biography of the complex woman who was Annie Oakley.

Noted historians explore the lives of eleven remarkable women who influenced the West.

Eleven Women who Shaped the American West

By Grit & Grace

"This book ... presents an introduction to the history of women in the United States that combines factual knowledge with a specific thesis intended to provoke discussion and further thought. It is my hope that it will inform, enlighten, and expand the thinking of all who read it. In an attempt to achieve these goals, this book necessarily emphasizes what historian Kathryn Kish Sklar terms 'gender specific' experiences. It focuses on those historical episodes that are more germane to one gender than the other. Specifically, women's work, socialization, roles, activities, and cultural values are of primary concern. ... More specifically, this volume compares the model that was to direct American women's behavior with women's reactions to it."--From the introduction.

A Perspective on Women's History

Inventing the American Woman

Experience the amazing world of Brutal Legend, the highly anticipated videogame from developer Double Fine Productions and game publisher Electronic Arts. Jack Black stars as Eddie Riggs, the world’s greatest roadie, who must learn to command the power of rock to stop evil demons from enslaving humanity and to ascend to the legendary status of ROCK GOD! The Art of Brütal Legend is the lavishly produced collection of metal-themed concept art and behind-the-scenes features that provide an unprecedented look inside the game’s creative development and badass design. Script excerpts and exclusive fantasy lore make this lavish art book the ultimate showpiece for headbangers everywhere.

Saving the "Wild" West

Women and Nature

Presents the sensational lives and exploits of nine notorious women from the days of boisterous frontier saloons and high-noon showdowns.

Wild Women of the Old West

Long before Rachel Carson?s fight against pesticides placed female environmental activists in the national spotlight, women were involved in American environmentalism. In Women and Nature: Saving the "Wild" West, Glenda Riley calls for a reappraisal of the roots of the American conservation movement. This thoroughly researched study of women conservationists provides a needed corrective to the male-dominated historiography of environmental studies. The early conservation movement gained much from women?s widespread involvement. Florence Merriam Bailey classified the birds of New Mexico and encouraged appreciation of nature and concern for environmental problems. Ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice published widely on Oklahoma birds. In 1902 Mary Knight Britton established the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America. Women also stimulated economic endeavors related to environmental concerns, including nature writing and photography, health spas and resorts, and outdoor clothing and equipment. From botanists, birders, and nature writers to club-women and travelers, untold numbers of women have contributed to the groundswell of support for environmentalism.

When the first edition of this groundbreaking survey of U.S. women’s history first appeared in 1986, no one could have predicted its spectacular success and widespread support—or the vast proliferation of women’s history courses in the nation’s high schools, colleges, and universities. Informed by the generous feedback of many of “Inventing"’s loyal users—student readers and instructors from every region of the nation—the fourth edition of Glenda Riley’s dynamic text remains the most inclusive, accessible, and affordable choice as a core text for the Women’s History course, as well as useful supplementary reading for courses in Women’s Studies and the U.S. survey. Completely up to date, with expanded coverage of women in the military, sports, women’s healthcare, divorce, and women of color—especially Spanish-speaking, American Indian, African American, and Asian American women—this well-balanced, interpretive account portrays the myriad of women’s experiences as they shaped and were shaped by American history, and redounds as a remarkable feat of insight and inclusion. As always, each volume features a stunning photographic essay, a visual account from the colonial era to the present.

An Inclusive History, Volume 2: Since 1877

Pioneer women going west carried distinct images of themselves and of American Indians. Their views reflected stereotypes pervading the popular literature and journalism of the nineteenth century: women were weak and defenseless, their westward trek was a noble mission, and American Indians were savages. But as a result of their frontier experience, many women changed or discarded their earlier opinions. This book is the first account of how and why pioneer women altered their self-images and their views of American Indians. In Women and Indians on the Frontier, Riley substantially revises the conventional melodramatic picture of pioneer women cowering when confronted with Indians. Frontier life required women to be self-reliant, independent, and hardy: as they learned to adapt, frontierswomen also learned to reexamine stereotypes in the light of experience. Interestingly, Riley explains, while pioneer women frequently changed their beliefs about Indians, they did not often revise their attitudes toward Mormon or Mexican women following contact with them. Frontierswomen also differed from men, whose unfavorable impression of Indians seldom changed. Riley's work is an important addition to Western history, women's studies, and American Indian studies. She examines in detail images and myths of both women and Indians, using examples from history, literature, and film, complemented by period photographs and illustrations. Her comparative account will interest a variety of scholars concerned with cultures in conflict and transition.

Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1825-1915

According to Glenda Riley, “the historical conflict between anti-divorce and pro-divorce factions has prevented the development of effective, beneficial divorce laws, procedures, and policies. Today we still lack processes that move spouses out of unworkable marriages in a constructive fashion and get them back into the mainstream of life in a stable, productive condition.” Her pioneering historical overview offers proposals for dealing with a subject that now pertains to nearly half of all marriages.

Glenda Riley

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