Waubonsee Community College

Comstock women, the making of a mining community, edited by Ronald M. James & C. Elizabeth Raymond

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-380) and index

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Comstock women

bibliography

36755797

edited by Ronald M. James & C. Elizabeth Raymond

Wilbur S. Shepperson series in history and humanities

the making of a mining community

The conventional view of Virginia City as a ramshackle mining camp populated largely by miners and the businesses - saloons, hotels, brothels- that served their needs obscures a significant and fascinating aspect of its history: it was home to large numbers of women and children. In this provocative and path-breaking collection of essays, noted scholars from several disciplines examine the lives of the women, from all social classes and many ethnicities, who settled on the Comstock Lode and struggled to create a stable community in that transient boomtown settingThe contributors to Comstock Women consider the complexity of women's experiences on the Comstock Lode, combining traditional historical research with demography, ethnic studies, architectural history, material culture, and literary studies, using as many tools as possible to arrive at insights not addressed by earlier histories and the limited primary records. Their conclusions change the way we view the position of Chinese women, the history of prostitution in the district, the economic roles played by women in the mining West, the wide-ranging social impact of such anodynes as opium, and the idea of community in a boomtown environmentA final essay on gender archaeology suggests yet another way to examine the lives of women who left few written records of their lives