BECAUSE OF THE BREADTH OF THIS BOOK, IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE for any one researcher to be a true expert on every topic covered in these pages, and I certainly won’t make such a claim. Instead, I want to acknowledge that I’m deeply indebted to the many talented and dedicated scholars who have previously examined the events that are the subjects of this book. Although I’ve listed those individuals in the bibliography, I’d also like to speak to their contributions here.
Rather than trying to list all of these individuals, I want to highlight one representative scholar and her research. In the bibliographical listing for Chapter 3, “Slowing the Momentum for Women’s Rights,” readers will find an entry for Karen K. List, “The Post-Revolutionary Woman Idealized: Philadelphia Media’s ‘Republican Mother.’” Professor List, a member of the journalism department at the University of Massachusetts, deserves far more credit than that brief citation. It was Karen who pored over hundreds of early women’s magazines to identify and analyze the messages those publications communicated to their readers, as well as to suggest the impact they had on American women writ large. In other words, Karen provided the road map that led me to the magazines that I quote from in my chapter. I went to those magazines and read the articles myself, but I readily acknowledge that my work would have been much more difficult if it hadn’t been for Karen’s trailblazing efforts. I gratefully appreciate her help—as well as that of numerous other scholars who preceded and guided me in researching many of the topics covered in this book.
Because much of the material contained in this book has evolved from my classroom lectures and from the materials I’ve written for my courses, I’m indebted to the many students who’ve provided me with feedback on the material. I still marvel at the fact that even though I wear the mantle of teacher, I learn so much from my magnificently creative students.
Some of the material in this book originated as conference papers and articles in scholarly journals. Among those persons whose contributions I want to acknowledge, therefore, are dozens of individuals I can’t name because their identities are masked behind the blind review process of the American Journalism Historians Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. I especially want to thank those members of the AEJMC History Division who honored my work on the 1920s newspaper crusade against the Ku Klux Klan.
Finally, I thank my husband, Tom Grooms, for continuing to enrich my life and make its activities worthwhile—whether it be writing a book or walking the dog.
Rodger Streitmatter