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"Women's history is developing into a new research area at a particular exciting time. It has been stimulated by two related but essentially independent developments: the maturation of social history and the appearance of a new women's movement...The fourteen papers in this collection represent a sampling of this recent research in the history of women...Although the essays range quite widely in the times, places, and subject matter covered, they relate to one another in several ways that indicate the direction that the new research is taking. First, each paper deals with a group of women who for the most part were not figures of outstanding public prominence or achievement, but who shared a set of common experiences...Second, all the papers are concerned not to 'extract' women from history, but rather to place them within their social context....A third quality that unites these essays is a curiosity about myths and received opinions concerning women's nature and roles...A final aspect of all these essays is that they reflect current concerns about women and women's roles." -- vii-viii (Preface).