Click ′Additional Materials′ for downloadable samples "This is a sound purchase for college and university libraries with women′s studies or American West programs as well as for large public libraries." --BOOKLIST "This is the first encyclopedia to focus on this neglected group. . . . There is a clear need for this encyclopedia . . . recommended for academic and public libraries and all libraries with a special interest in the western region and women′s studies." --LIBRARY JOURNAL "A highly educational and enlightening resource, the Encyclopedia of Women in the American West is a core recommendation for academic and public library American Western History Studies and Women′s Studies reference collections, as well as an invaluable resource for writers and non-specialist general readers with an interest in studying women′s experiences and contributions to American society and culture." --THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW Unites the American West and Women′s History American women have followed their "manifest destiny" since the 1800′s, moving West to homestead, found businesses, author novels and write poetry, practice medicine and law, preach and perform missionary work, become educators, artists, judges, civil rights activists, and many other important roles spurred on by their strength, spirit, and determination. Encyclopedia of Women of the American West captures the lives of more than 150 women who made their mark from the mid-1800s to the present, contextualizing their experiences and contributions to American society. Including many women profiled for the first time, the encyclopedia offers immense value and interest to practicing historians as well as students and the lay public. Multidisciplinary and Multicultural Cowgirls, ranchers, authors, poets, artists, judges, doctors, educators, and reformers--although these women took many different paths, they are united in their role in history, fighting not only for women′s rights, but equal rights for all in this rich and promised land. The Encyclopedia of Women in the American West chronicles the work of Native American activists such as Mildred Imach Cleghorn, and Sarah Winnemucca, the champion of rights of indigenous peoples who established Nevada′s first school for Native Americans in 1884. The encyclopedia also explores the stories of early ranchers. Among them is Freda Ehmann, who founded the California Ripe Olive Association where, according to her grandson, "science and chemical exactness failed, the experience and care of a skillful and conscientious housewife succeeded." Women in the American West have long thrived in the arts. This is evidenced by the work of authors such as Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, Amy Tan, and Linda Hasselstrom, poets such as Hildegarde Flanner, and journalist Molly Ivins. All are profiled in this comprehensive work. The arts are used to address both aesthetic and serious societal issues such as Maxine Hong Kingston′s The Woman Warrior, the story of a woman′s struggle with identity as a minority in American culture. Academics will appreciate a study of Ruth Underhill′s Autobiography of a Papago Woman, which deals with the role of feminist ideology in changing the discipline of anthropology during the first part of the twentieth century. Women in the American West have also achieved many "firsts" such as Utah′s Ivy Baker Priest, the first woman to hold the office of Treasurer of the United States, and Georgia Bullock, the first woman judge in the State of California. The Many Roles of Women in the American West The Encyclopedia of Women in the American West covers nine diverse topical categories: Agriculture/Ranching Arts and Letters Education Entrepreneurs Law Pioneers Public Performance Religion Women′s organizations The West is often portrayed as a rough and tumble man′s world, but behind these men--and often independently--were women with the dreams, strength, and determination to make a difference. The Encyclopedia of Women in the American West is a tribute to their independence, intelligence, courage, spirit, perseverance, and daring. Key Features Authoritative and in-depth articles on a wide range of salient issues in women′s history Suggested readings and interpretive materials for every entry Bridges two perennially popular areas of academic and lay interest: the American West and women′s history Developed and priced to appeal to high school and public libraries as well as academic libraries Recommended Libraries Public, school, academic, special, and private/corporate

This set treats the whole of American literature, from the European discovery of America to the present, with entries in alphabetical order. Each of the 350 substantive essays is a major interpretive contribution. Well-known critics and scholars provide clear and vividly written essays thatreflect the latest scholarship on a given topic, as well as original thinking on the part of the critic. The Encyclopedia is available in print and as an e-reference text from Oxford's Digital Reference Shelf.At the core of the encyclopedia lie 250 essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists. The most prominent figures (such as Whitman, Melville, Faulkner, Frost, Morrison, and so forth) are treated at considerable length (10,000 words) by top-flight critics. Less well known figures arediscussed in essays ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 words. Each essay examines the life of the author in the context of his or her times, looking in detail at key works and describing the arc of the writer's career. These essays include an assessment of the writer's current reputation with abibliography of major works by the writer as well as a list of major critical and biographical works about the writer under discussion.A second key element of the project is the critical assessments of major American masterworks, such as Moby-Dick, Song of Myself, Walden, The Great Gatsby, The Waste Land, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Death of a Salesmanr, or Beloved. Each of these essays offers a close reading of the given work,placing that work in its historical context and offering a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach. These fifty essays (ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 words) are simply and clearly enough written that an intelligent high school student should easily understand them, but sophisticatedenough that a college student or general reader in a public library will find the essays both informative and stimulating.The final major element of this encyclopedia consists of fifty-odd essays on literary movements, periods, or themes, pulling together a broad range of information and making interesting connections. These essays treat many of the same authors already discussed, but in a different context; they alsogather into the fold authors who do not have an entire essay on their work (so that Zane Grey, for example, is discussed in an essay on Western literature but does not have an essay to himself). In this way, the project is truly "encyclopedic," in the conventional sense. These essays aim forcomprehensiveness without losing anything of the narrative force that makes them good reading in their own right.In a very real fashion, the literature of the American people reflects their deepest desires, aspirations, fears, and fantasies. The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature gathers a wide range of information that illumines the field itself and clarifies many of its particulars.

Lists the names, addresses, characteristics, and functions of associations, enterprises, museums, publications, educational facilities, and services related to American Indian affairs.

More than ten years in the making, this comprehensive single-volume literary survey is for the student, scholar, and general reader. The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature represents a collaborative effort, involving 300 contributors from across the US and Canada. Composed of more than 1,100 signed biographical-critical entries, this Encyclopedia serves as both guide and companion to the study and appreciation of American literature. A special feature is the topical article, of which there are 70.

The course of daily life in the United States has been a product of tradition, environment, and circumstance. How did the Civil War alter the lives of women, both white and black, left alone on southern farms? How did the Great Depression change the lives of working class families in eastern cities? How did the discovery of gold in California transform the lives of native American, Hispanic, and white communities in western territories? Organized by time period as spelled out in the National Standards for U.S. History, these four volumes effectively analyze the diverse whole of American experience, examining the domestic, economic, intellectual, material, political, recreational, and religious life of the American people between 1763 and 2005. Working under the editorial direction of general editor Randall M. Miller, professor of history at St. Joseph's University, a group of expert volume editors carefully integrate material drawn from volumes in Greenwood's highly successful Daily Life Through History series with new material researched and written by themselves and other scholars. The four volumes cover the following periods: The War of Independence and Antebellum Expansion and Reform, 1763-1861, The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Industrialization of America, 1861-1900, The Emergence of Modern America, World War I, and the Great Depression, 1900-1940 and Wartime, Postwar, and Contemporary America, 1940-Present. Each volume includes a selection of primary documents, a timeline of important events during the period, images illustrating the text, and extensive bibliography of further information resources—both print and electronic—and a detailed subject index.

Praise for the print edition:" ... no other reference work on American fiction brings together such an array of authors and texts as this.

Encyclopedia of American Folklore helps readers explore the topics, terms, themes, figures, and issues related to the folklore of the United States.

Presents a reference on African American literature providing profiles of notable and little-known writers and their works, literary forms and genres, critics and scholars, themes and terminology and more.

This first-ever encyclopedia of the Midwest seeks to embrace this large and diverse area, to give it voice, and help define its distinctive character. Organized by topic, it encourages readers to reflect upon the region as a whole. Each section moves from the general to the specific, covering broad themes in longer introductory essays, filling in the details in the shorter entries that follow. There are portraits of each of the region's twelve states, followed by entries on society and culture, community and social life, economy and technology, and public life. The book offers a wealth of information about the region's surprising ethnic diversity -- a vast array of foods, languages, styles, religions, and customs -- plus well-informed essays on the region's history, culture and values, and conflicts. A site of ideas and innovations, reforms and revivals, and social and physical extremes, the Midwest emerges as a place of great complexity, signal importance, and continual fascination.