Publishers Weekly
08/26/2019
This lively and well-researched compendium by New York Times columnist Collins (When Everything Changed) surveys older women’s social roles and achievements throughout American history. Working chronologically—starting with Martha Washington in the Colonial era and ending with the 90th birthday party for Muriel Fox, a cofounder of NOW—Collins juggles vignettes, longer portraits of both well-known and comparatively obscure black and white women, and tales of racism, sexism, and ageism. She writes of Gidget and Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the abolitionist Grimké sisters; of the Rev. Pauli Murray, civil rights leader, and Rep. Millicent Fenwick, the “pipesmoking grandmother of eight” who represented New Jersey in Congress for eight years. She follows some women—such as abolitionist and poet Lydia Maria Child and diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt—through several decades. Collins portrays Elizabeth Cady Stanton as a “canny strategist” for raising her children before embarking on activism, thereby ensuring her respectability; credits the success of the civil rights movement to its older women; and describes a time when male doctors thought sex was fatal for women over 50. She inserts significant data with a light touch and leavens the subject matter with her signature humorous tone. This enjoyable and informative historical survey will delight Collins’s fans and bring in some new ones. Agent: Alice Fried Martell, Martell Agency. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"A deeply researched, entertaining book . . . [Collins] brings a reporter's eye to the facts and anecdotes, and never without humor."—New York Times
"Collins . . . is a cheerful companion through the decades."—Washington Post
"An eye-opening guide to our shifting attitudes about aging."—New York Times
"Known for the punch of her columns, Collins sprinkles conversational asides throughout to keep this hike through the decades spry. . . . Former New Jersey Rep. Millicent Fenwick . . . is just one of the many fascinating, unstoppable exemplars Collins manages to squeeze into this tightly laced historical corset."—Heller McAlpin, NPR
"A lively celebration of women's potential."—Kirkus
"Collins continues her exploration of women's history with this breezy look at the position of older women in American society. This is a diverting and certainly interesting and valuable read."—Booklist
"A lively and well-researched compendium. . . . This enjoyable and informative historical survey will delight Collins's fans and bring in some new ones."—Publishers Weekly
Praise for When Everything Changed:
"Splendid...Collins is a masterful storyteller."—Glenn C. Altschuler, NPR.com
"Did feminism fail? Gail Collins's smart, thorough, often droll and extremely readable account of women's recent history in America not only answers this question brilliantly, but also poses new ones about the past and the present."—Amy Bloom, The New York Times Book Review
"Riveting and remarkably thorough in its account of this tumultuous period."—Rasha Madkour, Los Angeles Times
"Compulsively readable."—Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
"Gail Collins has an unflaggingly intelligent conversational style that gives this book a personal and authoritative tone all at once."—Cathleen Schine, The New York Review of Books
"Exhilarating, accessible, and inspiring."—Katha Pollitt, Slate.com
"Gail Collins is such a delicious writer, it's easy to forget the scope of her scholarship in this remarkable look at women's progress."—People
DECEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
Narrator Tanya Eby takes listeners through this expansive history of the impact of older women on American culture. Starting with the American Revolution and continuing through contemporary times with figures like Gloria Steinem, this audiobook tells the extraordinary stories of regular women who shaped the nation we know today. Though the focus is on women middle-aged and older, as well as on American views on aging, this rich work is excellent for those of all genders. Eby’s rich voice and heartfelt narration keep the listener engaged and still wanting to know more. V.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-08-04
"This is the story about women and age in America," writes New York Times op-ed columnist Collins (As Texas Goes…: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda, 2012, etc.) in a jaunty survey of women's lives from Colonial days to the 21st century, focusing on the ever changing designation of what counts as old age.
Colonial society valued usefulness, no matter what a woman's age, and in the 1920s, any woman older than 19 was considered past her prime. Dispatching the 18th and 19th centuries in a handful of chapters, Collins looks at the 20th century decade by decade, enlivening her history with portraits of a wide variety of significant women—for example, the legendary African American stagecoach driver Mary Fields, who was "past fifty when she moved to a Catholic mission in Montana, where she helped out by hauling supplies"; Frances Willard, who wrote a bestseller about learning how to ride a bicycle at 53; and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who published an article about divorce reform two weeks before she died at 86. Some women Collins profiles in her abundantly populated history faced growing older with equanimity; others saw aging as "a problem to be solved through personal effort" that included diet, exercise, cosmetic surgery, and hair dye. In the early 1900s, actress Lillian Russell "announced she was getting in shape through a regimen of rolling over 250 times every morning." Some women—like activist Jane Addams and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins—defied social expectations by entering business and politics; others believed that women's place was in the home. During periods of economic stress, especially the Depression, women who worked were condemned for taking jobs away from men. In the 1960s, however, when fewer workers were available because of the low birth rate of the 1930s, more opportunities opened up for older women. As Collins sees it, there was never a time when women's aging wasn't controversial and, for some, troubling. But, she adds, "we're teaching ourselves how to get old in the best way possible."
A lively celebration of women's potential.
