Far from Home: Families of the Westward Journey - Softcover

Schlissel, Lillian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803292953 ISBN 13: 9780803292956

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2002

Synopsis

Lillian Schlissel is a professor emerita of English and American Studies at Brooklyn College–CUNY. She is the author of numerous books, including The Western Women's Reader (with Catherine Lavender) and Black Frontiers: A History of African American Heroes in the Old West. Byrd Gibbens is a professor of English at the University of New Mexico, Valencia campus, and the author of This Is a Strange Country: Letters of a Western Family 1880-1906.Elizabeth Hampsten is a professor of English at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, and the author of Settlers' Children: Growing Up on the Great Plains.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

at the human cost of the cross continental trek. Using letters and diaries, the author pieces together the sagas of 3 families of the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries who ventured West.

From Publishers Weekly:

One of the enduring myths of the Westward movement is the happy ending: families that survived the arduous journey found a rewarding new life despite hardships. The authors examine the history of three migrant families--everyday people who lived on the Western frontier. Schlissel ( Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey ) tells the story of the Malicks, who emigrated to Oregon from Illinois in 1848. Gibbons writes about the Browns; they left Virginia after the Civil War to wander among the mining camps of Colorado and New Mexico. Hampstein follows the hard times of two German families from Russia--the Nehers and Martins, who came to North Dakota in 1909. Theirs is a story of appalling poverty, feelings of inferiority, lack of communication. These are sad, even tragic tales about women and family life on the frontier. In an afterword, Schlissel discusses mobility and family separation as part of our frontier heritage. A valuable contribution to both women's and Western history. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0803292953
• ISBN 13: 9780803292956
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264