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Unsettling the West: Eliza Farnham and Georgiana Bruce Kirby in Frontier California (California Legacy Book)
Unsettling the West Eliza Farnham and Georgiana Bruce Kirby in Frontier California - California Legacy Book Author:Joann Levy, Jo Ann Levy California during the gold rush offered many strange sights, but few were as startling as the arrival of two women activists in Santa Cruz in 1850. When Eliza Farnham and Georgiana Bruce Kirby showed up to work on the farm dressed in bloomers and boots, the townsfolk were amazed. It was shocking enough that these two East Coast women were suffra... more »gettes; when they learned that Eliza was not advocating womens equality, but rather lecturing on womens superiority, it seemed the entire state was abuzz. JoAnn Levy, the well-known historian and author of _They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush_, has pieced together for the first time the grand story of two of American historys forgotten treasures: Eliza Farnham and Georgiana Bruce Kirby. Together they made national headlines with their writings and their beliefs, be they abolitionism, womens suffrage, Spiritualism, or phrenology. Both were extraordinarily gifted authors; known nationwide in their time, they have since fallen into obscurity. Levy mined extensively their writings, and found gold: Elizaherself the author of five bookswas the first woman to write a book about California, and the letters written by her and Georgiana are full of intelligence and humor. More than just a history of women in the American frontier, _Unsettling the West_ is the story of a profound friendship. The courage, passion, and wit exhibited by Eliza and Georgiana are surpassed only by their love and respect for one another. These women were at the vanguard of the major social and political movements of their time; they invented identities for themselves that the world had never seen before. They were both oddities and inspirations. In this energetic new book we find ourselves introduced to two characters whose courageous examples we need today more than ever.« less