Writing the Range: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women’s West
Destroying the myth that women in the American West were  merely the worried wives or saucy saloon singers portrayed in the  movies, the 29 essays in this collection show that females played a vital  role on the American frontier. The essays often have a critical aspect,  making specific arguments about the role women played in the settling  of the West, but what is perhaps most enlightening about the book are  biographical sketches demonstrating that the some of the most  remarkable people taming the frontier were women.