Women's letters : America from the Revolutionary War to the present
(Book - Regular Print)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 763-802) and index.

Historical events of the last three centuries and personal milestones in women's lives come alive through these singular correspondences, over 400 letters accompanied by over 100 photographs. In 1775, Rachel Revere tries to send financial aid to her husband, Paul, in a note that is confiscated by the British; a mid-nineteenth-century missionary describes a mastectomy performed without anesthesia; one week after JFK's assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy pens a heartfelt letter to Nikita Khrushchev; an eighteen-year-old tells her mother about her decision to have an abortion the year after Roe v. Wade; and on September 12, 2001, a schoolgirl writes a note of thanks to a New York City firefighter, asking him, "Were you afraid?"--From publisher description.