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The Gentle Tamers Revisited: New Approaches to the History of Women in the American West
- University of New Mexico Press
- Chapter
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O VER twenty years ago,Putnam Press published Dee Brown’s The Gentle Tamers, one of the first books to attempt an overview and analysis of the roles of women in the West. The Gentle Tamers elaborated and codified the assumption that white males “tamed” the West in its physical aspects and that white women, who followed the men, gently tamed the social conditions (including, of course, white men). By focusing on women as a group, Brown filled a major gap in western historiography,and because he provided a thesis and a framework, his book remains the most widely read book on women in theWest.This essay is an attempt to place the concept of the “gentle tamers” in its larger historiographical context, to examine the ways in which women in theWest have been viewed by historians, and to explore new possibilities for analysis. Brown’s book essentially provided an elaboration of an older male image of western women, one which still dominates literature and the classroom.A newer,ethnically broader and more varied image of women in the West is today challenging that older view. This view rests on a The Gentle Tamers Revisited: New Approaches to the History of Women in the American West Joan M. Jensen and Darlis A. Miller * Joan M. Jensen and Darlis A. Miller, “The Gentle Tamers Revisited: New Approaches to the History ofWomen in theAmericanWest,”Pacific Historical Review : (). © Pacific Historical Review, Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, University of California Press. Reprinted by permission. Joan M. Jensen and Darlis A. Miller multicultural approach which calls for an evaluation of the experiences of all ethnic groups of women within a historical framework incorporating women’s history into western history. This process will necessitate the rewriting of western history, a task which should be undertaken with an eye to other work now being done in women’s history. Since Fredrick Jackson Turner first presented his famous thesis to fellow historians in , studies of the American frontier and westward expansion have issued forth in a steady stream.Although the master himself virtually ignored women’s roles in conquering the frontier,other historians have made some attempt to include women in their studies of the American pioneering experience. It is,of course,difficult to generalize about women on the frontier.The term has been used to refer to a sparsely populated area on the edge of settlement with its particular location changing as Euro-American settlement moved west across the continent . For over three hundred years there were men and women in America experiencing frontier conditions. The frontier of Jamestown settlers was beyond the fall line; that of revolutionary America was beyond the Appalachians; and that for Americans living in mid-nineteenth century was beyond the Mississippi.So temporal and spatial considerations have complicated efforts to generalize about frontier women. Then,too,the frontier has been defined as process—the process through which a relatively primitive society is transformed into a more complex society. It is generally in this area—frontier as process—that historians have inserted their comments about frontier women. But students of American expansion and the pioneering process have never come to grips with terminology.“Frontier” and the “West” are terms frequently interchanged, and their temporal and spatial delineations remain imprecise and shrouded in confusion. There is general consensus among some observers that the trans-Mississippi region—or more specifically the area west of the ninety-eighth meridian—is the “real West,” perhaps because it developed in more recent times or more likely because its physical and cultural characteristics differed so dramatically from areas to the east. Hence this vast territory is frequently referred to as the Far West or the New West to distinguish it from the earlier wests of colonial times. When historians have turned their attention to western women, typically they have [54.145.82.104] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 10:30 GMT) The Gentle Tamers Revisited focused on women in this geographical region west of the Mississippi, though here again terminology and delineations are imprecise. After Herbert E. Bolton made borderland studies popular, the Spanish Southwest became a major field for study within the broader context of American western and frontier studies.Although Bolton was at ease in crossing the modern international boundary in his studies, later students of the Southwest generally limited their focus to Texas and the Mexican cession lands—New Mexico west to California. So southwestern women became a theme—really a whisper...