A major goal of the New Western History is to chronicle the vast diversity of western experience. In this pathbreaking anthology, coeditors Elizabeth Jameson and Susan Armitage-who brought us "The Women’s West in 1987"-meet that challenge by bringing together twenty-nine essays that present women of all races as actors in their own lives and in the history of the American West and locate them in a framework that connects gender, race, and class.In mythic sagas of the American West, the wide western range offered boundless opportunity to a limited cast of white men. Buffalo roamed, deer and antelope played, and women’s voices were never heard. Writing the Range allows us to hear many long-silenced women: Spanish-Mexican settlers and American Indians on New Spain’s northern frontiers; Chinese, Basque, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Slavic, and Irish immigrants; film stars Dolores del Rio and Lupe Velez; Navajos and African Americans who moved to western cities during World War II; and the activist Mothers of East Los Angeles, who organized to resist environmental dangers to their community.A valuable introduction to the rapidly changing field of western history, Writing the Range explains clearly how race, class, and culture are constructed and connected. The first section examines issues raised by more than a decade of multicultural western women’s histories; following are six chronological sections spanning four centures. Each section offers a short introduction connecting is essays and placing them in analytic and historical perspective. Clearly written and accessible, Writing the Range makes a major contribution in ethnic history, women’s history, and interpretations of the American West.
"I'D NEVER HAD A HUNDRED WOMEN BEFORE"It was at the breakfast for a hundred wives of the 385th Bomb Group Memorial Association in Tucson, Arizona, and I was the guest speaker to talk about my book "THE WRONG STUFF". I felt intimidated and also apprehensive about saying the wrong thing. After all, my specialty was "THE WRONG STUFF". And sure enough --- The first thing I heard myself saying seemed to come out wrong.
I started with, "I've never had a hundred women before."
The response from the ladies was titillation: The state of being tickled.
Surprised at first by their response, I realized that it wasn't all bad to have tickled so many women at one time.
Women. I say, "Women (?)", with emphasis on the question mark, because I'm into my seventies and I still haven't figured them out. Yet, they have (surprisingly to me) expressed appreciation for "THE WRONG STUFF".
As a result, I usually suggest to the "girls" to give "THE WRONG STUFF" to their husband or boyfriend as a gift. And that morning in Tucson, I was pleased that they bought all copies available from the bookstore --- and I still haven't figured it out.
Why would women be interested in an autobiography of a twenty-year-old B-17 pilot flying combat in Europe during World War Two?
I'm not talking about just the wives of the guys who were involved in the greatest air war in history, but younger women who were not yet born.
There is a seventeen year old girl in England, who's been in contact with me, who knows more about the adventures and MIS-adventures of those in the Eighth Air Force than I do... Oh, to B-17 again.
What makes it so puzzling is having been told up front by a female agent in New York City, that, "Nobody is interested in what happened back then." Really? What about "Saving Private Ryan", "Citizen Soldiers" and "The Greatest Generation"?
Now, "THE WRONG STUFF" didn't make the New York Times Best Seller List. Not their fault. As far as I know, they were never asked to read it. The same with Publishers Weekly.
However, I also know that "THE WRONG STUFF" was the Best Seller at Brace Books in my hometown in Ponca City, Oklahoma.
Big deal? For me, yes, because my publisher couldn't have handled a national Best Seller at the time. But it was interesting to note, that none of the national Best Sellers even made the Top Ten at my bookstore. Hmmmm?
But thank God for Amazon. com . "THE WRONG STUFF" has been consistently among the top one-half-of-one-percent of the three million books available from Amazon. So get your copy, read it and see if you don't agree that it's a FIVE STAR (PLUS).
CAUTION: You might find a bit of the language shocking. But to put you into the cockpit and let you know what it was really like, I had to tell it like it really was.
Truman J. Smith
