Frontierswomen: The Iowa Experience

I found this book well researched, well-written, and absolutely fascinating. It describes the lives and contributions of women on the frontier, as Iowa was in the 1840's through 1870. It covers women's work, their homes, their family lives, their work outside the home -- I found particularly interesting the study of the impact of the Civil War on women's lives, and of women's work to support the war effort. Since most histories of the frontier experience concentrate on men, this work fills a gap by illuminating a largely ignored facet.