Female Husbands is a nonfiction history of trans-ing gender in America. Beginning in the colonial era, Manion has clearly put the work in to give readers a picture of how gender trans-ing occurred many centuries ago. Early queer pioneers began adopting male appearances and social habits for a variety of reasons, from wanting to live domestic lives with female partners to requiring the hire pay one could receive by working as a man. Many female individuals passed their lives uninterrupted as men in society, but there were also many cases were these men were discovered to have female anatomy, both in life and death. Manion does an amazing job of giving readers a full account of the various ways in which female-bodied people lived their lives as men, and the ways in which gender became fluid for many female-bodied individuals as well.
As this is a nonfiction book, it is definitely a slower read. Jam-packed with quotes, excerpts, pictures, and countless stories from a variety of sources, it's clear that Manion is knowledgeable on the subject. Manion does a wonderful job of condensing and reflecting this information to their audience. I learned way more about historical gender trans-ing than I had ever considered. The information is dense, but it is worthwhile. Readers are given evidence that supports Manion's own conclusions, but also leaves room for readers to draw their own conclusions.
Manion's terminology continued to be inclusive, and where possible, they explained why they chose to use they/them pronouns or other terms to describe the people filling these pages. The amount of times that people who did not follow gender norms were discussed in tabloids and other media, and the varying levels of acceptance or repulsion found documented in the media, was highly fascinating to me. This is well worth the read.

A really wonderful look at people assigned female at birth transing their gender during 1700s-1900s and the varied use of the term 'female husbands' as a way of describing those who caught the public's attention.

This is an academic text so it's important to note that this book is long, detailed and at times feels like it is repeating the same point again and again. However, I found the entire book fascinating. I was particularly interested to see how as far back as the 1800s, when the women's movement first started to take shape, many feminists unfortunately had an uneasy relationship with trans identities.

An essential read to anyone interested in both trans and lesbian history.

I got an ARC of this book.

I have studied gender both professionally and personally for most of my life. Gender and sexuality are my two biggest research loves. I have never hidden this and I never will. This book sounded perfect for me. The title promises a TRANS history of something that has always been talked about as a lesbian history in the LGBTQ focused classes I was able to take and in the text books those classes assigned. Lesbian and trans are not mutual exclusive, but there has been friction in the communities for various reasons for decades. So I was interested to see this. I thought it would be a lot like True Sex. 

Instead, the author took every chance to make this about lesbian history. If this were titled "Female Husbands: A Lesbian History" I would be ALL OVER IT. It would be a great lesbian history. The author even goes a step further and talks about the wives of female husbands which I have never seen before. This was so cool. Instead I was left thinking the author had no idea what she was talking about quite often since the title is not represented in the book whatsoever. The author self identified in the middle of a history book by saying she was a butch lesbian, which 100% cool. I get that having an identity that is relevant can be important, so now I must say I am a trans man. I have an identity that according to the title is more closely aligned with the book's content. This book is not a trans history. This is a lesbian history that often has places where it could and should be a trans history, but it is not a trans history. 

The author uses trans as a verb, which didn't sit right with me for various reasons. She explained this away by citing someone else who came up with the idea, but it still did not sit well with me. I am asked by cis people if I am transing when they mean transitioning. So the term is already loaded for me as a trans person. To then have it applied to gender role non-conformity for what the author repeatedly implies and flat out says are lesbians makes me even less comfortable with the world choice. 

Pronouns in the book were also a bit weird. The author explains the use of they/them which I can really get behind, but then in the chapter that is about a trans man in a more modern time who explicitly said they were a man and lived stealth for many years, continues to use they/them felt a bit disrespectful. I did some digging and the author also says that asking for someone's pronouns is harmful in a piece they published in 2018. She mentions how it is harmful to trans people to misgender them, but then says that asking for pronouns and making it safe for someone to say their pronouns should not happen. The more I read the less I want to know. 

This book could have been amazing. It could have been a great history, instead is just read as transphobic. Yes, there is no way to know for sure if the female husbands reported are trans or lesbian or bi or whatever else they possibly identified as. But saying a book is a trans history then repeatedly denying the chance that there is trans in the history doesn't sit right. The epilogue literally uses outdated language to refer to a trans man. The author repeatedly refers to the wives of the female husbands as being the hidden lesbian history that no one talks about. Some of the female husbands were very probably not binary in their gender, but the majority of the ones mentioned appeared based on reading the source materiel as binary. So there is no reason to keep insisting that the wives of these very potentially trans men are lesbians, except to erase the possibility of trans men. If trans was ever really allowed as an option for these female husbands, I could overlook so much of this. The idea that they could be trans comes up a few times, but then the author doubles down on the idea of lesbian for everyone involved.

This would be a one star book, but the history and the depth that the history of the female husbands' stories are told is impressive. The two stars is literally just for the gathering of information of a biographer. The rest of the book is just awful. I feel bad even giving it two stars.

This was an excellent study of LGBT+ and Trans identities around the Victorian period in the UK and US! I am studying similar issues in class at the moment and I was floored by how charismatic and charming the writing was while still being very historically accurate and sensitive. This was written with a very unbiased lens while discussing very sensitive issues. The author maintained gender-neutral pronouns while discussing the Female Husbands and never once assumed their identities, which pleased me greatly. I was also amazed by the depth the book went into without seeming over-the-top or long-winded in any way. I really enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about LGBT+ histories or marginalised voices in history.

This is an interesting and important topic, but not told in the most interesting manner. It reads as a rather dry history book, though some of the stories are fascinating. This will be a great resource for people who really want to learn the history of these folks in the UK and USA.

Unfortunately I did not finish this one. I think I misunderstood the blurb that mentioned "very personal stories" and expected something far less academic. Absolutely nothing wrong with the text and the content is fascinating. I think this would be a great book for many readers, I just wasn't one of them.

This book is engrossing. It is a fascinating academic work on queer pioneers in the UK and US from the 18th to early 20th century. For a brief moment upon finishing, I had to remind myself I am in the 21st century.

"Female Husbands" reconstructed the life stories of female husbands, their wives, and others who were assigned female at birth and donned male attire without imposing modern terminologies or assumptions. The particular use of 'them/them' pronouns for these remarkable pioneers has made space for ambiguity since no modern person could ever be sure of their gender identity.

In addition to the life stories of Charles Hamilton, James Howe, James Allen, Albert Guelph, Joseph Lobdell, etc., the book supplied backgrounds of laws, social systems, and political aspects during the time. These details certainly helped paint a more complete picture of what it was like back then.

Though the structure could be more streamlined at times for a smoother read and clearer theme connections between consecutive chapters, Manion has done a wonderful job of piecing together the history. It is a book I did not know I needed.

Since all the iconic people mentioned have been outed at some point of their lives so as to fall under public scrutiny, I would like to think that there were a fair amount of female husbands and their wives who lived in relative peace and happiness until their deaths. I really hope there were.

A fascinating, sustained examination of the history of 'female husbands' - I wondered about the title, when it clearly meant to look at gender fluidity, transing gender and non-binary gender in history, but in context it's clear that Manion means female as in sex, and that their reading of gender is far more complex than that. Beautifully researched, it recovers many lives of AFAB people who contracted marriages with women while presenting as male, and shows how much has been lost/is unrecoverable - more of these stories, motives outside the traditional narrative these stories were made to fit in reporting, and even more, the stories and opinions of the women they married. Manion sometimes overclaims a little in filling these gaps with imagination - they are clear when they are doing so,but then sometimes forget their conditional language in taking a second step forward - but this was an enjoyable read, and a necessary corrective of the way that such lives were firmly read within a hard-edged gender binary.

While this is a thoroughly researched and truly fascinating topic, in the end I think that few people who aren't already interested in what the author is saying will be able to get through much of it, as it is very dense and reads almost like a dissertation. A great resource for those who want to know more about queer history and don't mind heavier, meatier passages.

This book was beautifully researched and written. The author had an engaging and authoritative tone. I particularly liked the way the different historical narratives were woven together. The topic of Female Husbands was not one I had previously looked at and after this book I am so intrigued by it.

A fascinating look at a certain part of LGBTQIA+ history. It's easy in the Tumblr age to read short posts about certain historical figures and say "well they must've been trans" or "they must've been gay", but it's actually a lot more complicated than that. Manion delves into the relationship between gender and sexuality in an era when the terminology was very different - and a lot more restrictive.

The writing is quite academic, but Manion makes it easy to connect with each "female husband" by following their lives and making them feel very real. The chronological set-up also allows Manion to easily link the past to the present. A dense book, but well worth reading.

This book was such an informative look at transgender life in the West, particularly the nineteenth century. I learned so much and was very impressed with the author's level of research and the amount of contemporary accounts of these people who chose to live out their true selves.

Unfortunately, I am DNF'ing this at about 50%. While I find this subject fascinated and something I will certainly research more, I couldn't really connect with this particular book. It could be because the author's style doesn't work for me or because it was a badly formatted e-ARC.

Fantastic!! I learned so much from this book and history in what women had to go through to be together and conform to the society of the times.
Very informative and truly recommend this book.

An interesting look at the women - who became husbands and lives and laws around them. A look at the UK and then the States. A good book for those who are looking at trans history, women's history or one the countries talked about.

So interesting so informative a subject I knew nothing about.Female husbands living in a different gender told informatively in an engaging manner a very interesting book.#netgalley#camberidge upress.

This was such a fascinating book on an aspect of queer history that I (and probably many readers) previously wasn't aware of. It's an interesting element of transgender and lesbian history and presented well. Although it's definitely more on the academic side of writing, the prose is still very engaging. The only issue I had was that the ebook formatting was a little wonky and sometimes difficult to read for that reason.

Also, I liked how the author used "they" pronouns instead of calling the female husbands "she"–it felt respectful since historians probably don't know how these people identified in terms of personal gender identity.

Very interesting book!! Writing was engaging as well as informative on a subject I honestly never new about before this book.an in historical book!!

"Female Husbands" was a phenomenal book. I love learning more about queer history, and this book does a fantastic job at breaking down who 'female husbands' were (including case studies), where 'they' were (spoiler: everywhere), and what 'female husbands' and other trans folks did day-to-day. To clarify, female husbands are described as people assigned female who transed gender and lived as men -- and married women.

This book focuses on the time periods from the Colonial era to World War I in Europe and the United States, Manion takes into account socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, and class in this book..and I'm so glad she did. Too often marginalized queer folks don't get their moment to tell their history. Manion does a fantastic job of amplifying these voices. I would highly recommend reading this book if you enjoy reading about: history, LGBTQIA/Queer history, nonfiction, and colonial-era historical archive pieces. It's a great book to read in order or if you happen to skip through chapters.

Wow. This was one of those books that was very eye opening. I was drawn in by the title and what I believed meant a trans based text. The history alone makes this one a worthwhile read. It is full of facts. I love that the author is a professor as well so you know that the material was not opinion based, but thoroughly researched and written by an expert. The mixture of scenarios, real life stories, and research based information is what makes this one stand out. It is definitely something that not everyone will want to read. But if you are interested in this topic, an open and accepting person, or just looking to educate yourself a little bit more, give this one a chance. I was surprised.