An amazing story that brought tears to my eyes. I highly recommend that you read the book and share the story with others.

I love this book.

Most book's that are set during the time in which pioneers were settling wild lands focus solely on the make pioneer. If women were mentioned at all, their contributions were seen solely as baby making machines. This stereotype has persisted a very long time.

THE WOMAN WITHOUT A VOICE sets out to point out just how crucial a role that women undertook during pioneering days. It is about time that women's contributions and importance was pointed out and documented so that future generations will have a true accounting of the realities of the pioneer lifestyle with both genders being recognized equally.

I rate this book as 4 out of 5 Stars

Books like these are so important. So little is actually said about the women pioneers. I have read several pioneer diaries of women over the years. The earliest, and mostly fictional, were the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. But I later read her diaries and was inspired to seek out others. I was also fortunate to have known several great-aunts who traveled across the country in covered wagons as children so I heard their stories and those of their mothers. Women seem to be mostly ignored in history unless they are making the history themselves in some big way or being affliliated with some great man. It's so smart of so many of them to have left accounts of themselves in journals and letters. I do enjoy reading them as they talk about the every day lives of the women themselves, their families and friends. Much more informative and important in my opinion. At least to us women at the bottom of the food chain. No one at the top could function without the backbone provided by the women! Great read. Thanks Louise Farmer Smith fr sharing your story and inspiring us women to delve into our own family histories before they too are lost.

A lovely tribute to the the realities of homesteading! The story tells us of the hardworking, determined people that worked the land and also addresses the issues of those that found the battle too hard.. Very enlightening !

Viewpoint from the woman on wagons west, settling and homesteading with day to day life and struggles. Enjoyed the historical viewpoint.

Ebook from netgalley and publishers with thanks, Opinions are entirely my own.

This is a delightful book, chronicling the lives of the author's pioneering forbears and using original diaries, oral memories and photos to do so. The hardships, the joys, and the incredible hard work that were part of the daily life of these brave families who worked so hard to create a better life are described without melodrama but with compassion and empathy. By placing her own family in the context of all pioneering families Smith makes it easy for the reader to relate to what these families had to endure, and I found the book both fascinating and often very moving.

Another excellent book that brings to the reader's attention the life of women in historical times. It points out the home and household were the domain of all the family but the Father was the head and final arbiter in all decisions.
So after difficulties with drought and failing crops it was the men that decided the whole family's future. This is the story of one family, led by Isaac Storm the author's great grandfather. They became late pioneers, leaving the Nebraska's farmland, for the new lands of Oklahoma Territory. (There is another story here for another time regarding the wholesale disregard for native americans in their own lands).
From many western movies we have scene wagon trains heading west. this was on a smaller scale but the same problems would occur on the journey. Most of the family went by train, a wagon was sent overland. What is telling is the loss of settled lives, family and friends and having little imput into the decision. The women would have to school their children, act as pharmacist and over time do manual labour.
The book was written with the help of living relatives and diaries the women kept or letters exchanges; including some wonderful moments captured on photograph and kept news clippings.
The resilience of the womenfolk is most notable but so too their indomitable spirit and making do. The author is rightly proud of how the females of the family have maintained a sense of drive and ambition.
The book is also interesting in terms of the insights it touches on regarding the Civil War, the treatment of the insane, it was not a good time to be a woman when your husband could have you committed. Finally, there is also an aside about an earlier decendent who was a Quaker and martyred for her faith.
The land of the free? Perhaps not if you were a native american, a woman or practising christian of an outlawed denomination or sect.
A book worth reading that will raise more areas to follow-up on and a must for any student of american social history.

The Woman Without a Voice by Louise Farmer Smith is a book I requested from NetGalley and the book's publishers and the review is voluntary. I want to thank them for the chance to read this book. I enjoyed reading the struggles and the hardships these women and children had to go through. I can't imagine what it must have been like physically but mentally too. I think I would have be an outlaw! I don't think I could have kept my mouth shut and been humble like the women in the book. I found the book hard to follow, it jumped and bounced and I didn't know what family I was following. It took a while before I knew I was with a new group. If was still interesting but poor transition. There are a few pictures in the book too. I love history but this book did not do it for me. It was not seamless or organized enough. This really takes away when you have to try and figure out where you are now and with who. This could have been done so much better.

This book certainly gives you a feeling of the hardship of opening up the frontier.
I felt it was slightly disjointed but it makes you realise how the life for women has altered in a relatively short period of time.

This very brief family story was captivating. I wish the author had provided a longer narrative about her family. Two things marred the story. First, the lack of family photos included that the author continuously references. Secondly, many sentences are jumbled, fragmented, or simply end abruptedly. I realize I read a rough galley where these things occur, but this was constant and it made it difficult to read since I had to hunt for the rest of the sentence in succeeding pages and try to make sense of it. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital copy and I hope the finished product fixes the errors.

As a historian, I was immediately attracted to the cover and the title of the book and I didn't regret following that first instinct. This is a short, but well documented story about the author's family. The book is focused on the female part of this family, raised and educated to be obedient to men. This is the fact that follows women, not only of this, but also many other families all around the globe and finally begins to change in the "modern" times we all live in.
I believe this is a right type of literature for every reader who is a fan of memoirs and history documentaries with a personal and intimate touch. If you don't find yourself in that description, you might want to pass this book.

When I was younger, then I am now, I loved reading the Little House on the Prarie books. I loved watching the show based on the series, and never thought about what Ma must have thought about what was going on, what she really thought about leaving her family behind to follow her husband, and live out in a sod house, and make do. Laura Ingles Wilder tells the stories looking back at her childhood.

This book is very small, and short, but it is the author's view of what her greatgrandmother must have gone through, and the other women that were in the family, as they pushed westward. There is not a lot of source material, but Louise grabs what she can. This is almost an exercise in showing what can be gained by source material. She visits the asylum her great-grandmother was housed in for 16 years until her husband died, as well as reading the reports of her.

It is an interesting look back at a time when women had no choice but to do as their husbands said to do.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Every Family has a Story.

The author writes the history of her family from the 1890s until 1925 based on family and historical records and pictures. It begins with a drought in Nebraska forcing an entire farming family including their grown children to move to free land in Oklahoma. Some rode in horse-pulled wagons while others rode the newly built railroads. One, the matriarch Phebe, was left behind.

As the book continues, we hear of the harshness of living on a treeless prairie forcing families to leave in dugouts like moles underground. Eventually, the families build sod houses (yes the sod they only use for lawns out here in sunny California) and wooden framed houses in town. The requirements for keeping the free 160 acres of Oklahoma land were the building of a house with at least one window by the close of the fifth year on the land. There was no specifications about the building material. This led to settlers using their creativity and a booming business in window moving after the government inspector had left.

The author uses excellent period pictures of her family and others so you can really see how difficult it was for these pioneers. The book focuses on the female part of the story particularly in regards to what happened to Phebe. The writing style is quite beautiful and there is a full bibliography at the end for those wanting to read more.

While working in Child Protective Services in a small desert town in California, I was shocked to hear about children being picked up from a 'cave house' in the nearby sand dunes. The front of the house, which was one of many in the area, had a wooden door and a glass window. The rest of the house was a cave. Little did I, or anyone else in the office, know at the time but that was a common way to live less than 100 years earlier. If this book had only been written earlier.

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Net Galley and Upper Hand Press in exchange for an honest review. The book will be released on September 29, 2017. If you like true historical biographies, you should check it out.

This book was slow-ish in the beginning or perhaps that was just me as I was extremely tired when I started reading this last night. Regardless, family history does often start out slow as you have to build an account of people involved. So, I put the book down to start fresh in the morning.

I got up, got my coffee and started to make a true connection with the read. And I am so glad I did. Make no mistake - this book is beautifully written. The book hit the nail on the head with social issues and hardships of American frontiersmen and women. Yes, it is a pastoral setting. Yes, men made the decisions, while most women complied silently. But, I had no idea of the challenges pioneers approached, until I read this book.

The different recordings of occurances written by men versus women, I found wonderfully intriguing. Even more so, was the accounts of the asylum and threatened execution. Genuinely facinating and achingly lovely, are the photos and exchanges of letters shared.

This book clearly makes the reader more aware that every family has stories. There are triumphs, shared sadnesses and there are questions that perhaps haunt. The title, 'The Woman Without A Voice" spoke to me before I even opened the book. And has more so - now that I am finished. A beautiful read about strong human spirit and the courageous woman that chose to tell it.