American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary

From Booklist
Another in Greenwood's series of biographical dictionaries on women, this book details the lives of roughly 200 historians. Not all of them are academic historians; some are biographers (Catherine Drinker Bowen, Fawn Brodie) and others writers of popular history (Barbara Tuchman). While most of the women are deceased, many contemporary historians, such as Natalie Zeman Davis, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Gerda Lerner, Joan Wallach Scott, and Darlene Hine, are profiled. Since historians who are best known as administrators, such as Jill Ker Conway and Mary Frances Berry, are included, it is odd that there is no biography of Hannah Gray. Many of the subjects specialize in women's history, but there is a good distribution of scholars from all fields, from ancient history to modern U.S. and European history. The detailed index has entries for fields, so it is possible to find African or Asian historians, for example.Each entry is a page or two in length, and identifies the woman's field and her professional contributions. Apparently some of the living historians responded to a questionnaire from the editors, and their entries often contain personal information about spouses, children, and hobbies. Each entry concludes with a list of additional sources about the woman; some have a list of books by the woman. There is an insert of black-and-white portraits of 30 of the subjects. An interesting contribution to collections in history and women's studies.