Claudia Bushman

As a poet, author, and keen observer of life in 1870s Boston, Harriet Robinson played an essential — if occasionally underappreciated — role in the women’s suffrage movement during Boston’s golden age. Robinson flourished after leaving behind her humble roots in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, deciding to spend a year in Boston discovering the culture and politics of America’s Athens. An honest, bright, and perceptive witness, she meets with Emerson and Julia Ward Howe, with whom she organizes the New England Women’s Club, and drinks deeply of the city’s artistic and cultural offerings. Noted historian Claudia L. Bushman proves a wonderful guide as she weaves together Robinson’s journal entries, her own learned commentary, and selections from other nineteenth-century writers to reveal the impact of the industrial revolution and the rise of women’s suffrage as seen through the experience of one articulate, engaged participant. Going to Boston will appeal to readers interested in both the history of Boston and the history of American progress itself.

As a poet, author, and keen observer of life in 1870s Boston, Harriet Robinson played an essential - if occasionally underappreciated - role in the women's suffrage movement during Boston's golden age. Robinson flourished after leaving behind her humble roots in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, deciding to spend a year in Boston discovering the culture and politics of America's Athens. An honest, bright, and perceptive witness, she meets with Emerson and Julia Ward Howe, with whom she organizes the New England Women's Club, and drinks deeply of the city's artistic and cultural offerings. Noted historian Claudia L. Bushman proves a wonderful guide as she weaves together Robinson's journal entries, her own learned commentary, and selections from other nineteenth-century writers to reveal the impact of the industrial revolution and the rise of women's suffrage as seen through the experience of one articulate, engaged participant. Going to Boston will appeal to readers interested in both the history of Boston and the history of American progress itself.

In the last twenty years, an increasing number of books on the history of Utah and Mormon women have appeared. The book that led the way for these varied studies came to be when a group of Boston-area women, connected with the periodical Exponent II (named in honour of its nineteenth century predecessor, The Woman's Exponent), got together to publish a collection of topical essays on Utah women's history titled Mormon Sisters. The book became a minor classic in Mormon women's studies and inspired several imitators. Mormon Sisters has been out of print for a number of years. Now back in print, this new edition adds new illustrations, an updated reading list, information on the subsequent careers of the contributors, and an introduction by prominent historian Anne Firor Scott, author of numerous books, including Southern Lady.