Hardcover Edition
ISBN: 9780912670904
Publication Date: 11-01-1980

Although millions of women in the United States have worked on the land, With These Hands is the first history of their work. This collection begins with the agricultural work of Native American women, and traces to the eighties their experience as well as that of Euro-American, Hispanic, Black, and Asian women who have struggled to remain on the land. Rural women’s complex lives emerge through letters, songs, fiction, official documents, journal entries, poetry, and oral history, documenting their love of the land, consciousness of racism and sexism, views of politics, and activities aimed at change.

"Joan Jensen and the Feminist Press are to be congratulated for bringing together word pictures of a central theme in the working lives of all sorts of American women in several regions and times. The collection moves easily from Native American to immigrant groups, whether from Mexico, Africa, Asia, or Europe, to encompass the diversity, even the conflict, along with sameness of women's agricultural lives. This is a valuable collection for readers interested in the history of the majority of American women and much of American labor." —Nell Irvin Painter, author of The Narrative of Hosea Hudson

"I think With These Hands is very good. In the nineteenth century most American women were farm women, yet we have very little good material on them. . . . I'm so glad the Feminist Press is filling this gap with such an excellent collection." —Anne Firor Scott, author of Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics: 1830-1930