Abstracts of Books

Yorghos Apostolopoulos, Sevil Sonmex, and Dallen J. Timothy, eds., Women as Producers and Consumers of Tourism in Developing Regions. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001. xiv + 258 pp. ISBN 0-275-96397-7 (cl).

Composed of eleven original essays, this timely volume explores the various roles women have played (and are playing) in tourism—arguably now the single-largest global industry—in developing regions of the world—Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, and former communist countries in Europe. Prepared by a broad range of scholars in the social sciences, the essays probe especially the gendered impacts of touristic developments on women in host nations, but they also examine, though to a lesser degree, women as tourists. The findings of the volume are mixed, but generally negative: that is, tourism has not usually altered gender roles very much in host societies, nor has it greatly increased the standard of living for most women. Notes and references at the close of each essay lead readers to additional sources.———Mansel G. Blackford

Dianne Bardsley, The Land Girls in a Man's World, 1939 - 1946.Dunedin,New Zealand: University of Otago Press, 2000. 142 pp.; ill. ISBN 1-877133-94-9 (pb).

Based on interviews with over two hundred women who served in the New Zealand Women's Land Service during World War II, this book tells of the valuable service that women provided in the New Zealand agricultural sector. Not only did the Land Girls maintain pre-war levels of production, they also succeeded, beyond all expectations, by raising agricultural output to record levels. Their accomplishments are all the more noteworthy given the lack of technology; shortages of machinery and commonly used agricultural products such as fertilizer and pesticides complicated their jobs. By providing food for New Zealand's civilian and military population, as well as for British and American troops in the Pacific theater of war, the Land Girls made a significant contribution to Allied success. This book contains numerous photographs, reproductions of wartime posters, a handbook issued by the National Service Office, and a glossary of rural terms, helpful to the reader. Also included are brief biographies of those women interviewed in person or who provided comprehensive written accounts of their service. Land Girls in a Man's World adds a valuable chapter to the history of women's contributions during the World War II.———Marilyn E. Hegarty

Teresa A. Barnes. "We Women Worked so Hard": Gender, Urbanization and Social Reproduction in Colonial Harare, Zimbabwe, 1930-1956.Portsmouth: Heineman, 1999. xiii + 204 pp.; ill. ISBN 0-325-00172-3 (pb).

This is an enormously fascinating study that analyzes African ideas of gender in colonial Zimbabwe and how such ideas were instrumental in shaping oppositional responses before the creation of formal political nationalism. This is essentially a socio-economic history of gender relations and the shifting balance of power between African society and the colonial state in one small urban area. Barnes argues that urban African women and men in colonial Harare constructed complex yet coherent identities and durable hopes for themselves in broad moments of gendered conflict and consensus. This study relies on an extensive array of sources including archival documents, interviews, oral history, as well as secondary and primary documents.———Steeve Buckridge

Leeds Barroll. Anna of Denmark,Queen of England: A Cultural Biography. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. 226 pp. ISBN 0-8122-3574-6 (cl).

The cultural flowering of Jacobean England is traditionally associated with James I's use of the arts to glorify the power of the state. Leeds Barroll, a Scholar-in-Residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, contends that the court culture of early Stuart England was shaped not by James, but by his consort, Anna of Denmark, who had her own regal agenda. Anne surrounded herself with women such as Lucy Russell, the Countess of Bedford, who either as individuals or in conjunction with their spouses were renowned patrons of the arts. The early Stuart masques showcased the...