This dissertation explores how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strategically reinterpreted its history during the ERA ratification period to cultivate member identification and encourage political action. Through analyses of archival practices, public monuments like the Nauvoo Monument to Women, and the promotion of personal history keeping, it argues the Church actively shaped memory and identity. Furthermore, the study examines how the Church's historiography suppressed dissenting voices and concealed structural inequalities. Ultimately, the dissertation proposes a theoretical framework for understanding resistance to such institutional rhetoric.

PhD Dissertation; University of New Mexico

Valerie Kinsey highlights a recovered 1902 article where Mary E. Wilkins Freeman contributes to Elizabeth Cady Stanton's symposium on the divorce problem. 1 Published shortly after her own marriage, Freeman offers her perspective on issues like self-sufficiency in marriage, the age of marriage, and acceptable grounds for divorce, including alcoholism and insanity. Notably, Freeman argues that a wife contributes to a "WELL-REGULATED" marriage even without monetary income, and she generally supports a waiting period for divorce and considers mutual consent a valid cause.

For over forty years, American Literary Realism has brought readers critical essays on American literature from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Valerie Kinsey's discovery of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's "The White Witch," a previously uncatalogued children's Christmas story from 1893, expands our understanding of the author's diverse literary output. Set in the monochromatic land of Polaria where children suffer from discontent with their toys, the narrative introduces a mysterious White Witch whose colorful magic offers a potential solution. This recovered tale should interest scholars exploring Freeman's engagement with fairy tale elements and her often-overlooked contributions to children's literature.

For over forty years, American Literary Realism has brought readers critical essays on American literature from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.