Illinois Authors

Ivan R. Dee, Chicago : 2003.

This book tells what life was like for youngsters who lived on the Great Plains in nineteenth-century frontier life. Chapters address a breadth of experiences and perceptions: why families came to the Great Plains and where they decided to settle; how families and communities were organized for education, work, and play; how health care, accidents, and mortality affected childhoods; and what children experienced outside the home.

University Press of Kansas, Lawrence : ©2001.

The first book to focus exclusively on this subject, Marilyn Holt's study interweaves Indian history, educational history, family history, and child welfare policy to tell the story of Indian orphanages within the larger context of the orphan asylum in America. She relates the history of these orphanages and the cultural factors that produced and sustained them, shows how orphans became a part of native experience after Euro-American contact, and explores the manner in which Indian societies have addressed the issue of child dependency.--Jacket.

University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln : [2005]

"The Progressive Era, falling between the conspicuous materialism of the Gay Nineties and the excesses of the Roaring Twenties, promoted a vision of America united by an emphasis on science and progressive reform. The zeal to modernize business, government, and social relations extended to farm families and the ways women defined their roles." "In this study of the expert advice offered by the domestic-economy movement, Marilyn Irvin Holt argues that women were not passive receptors of these views. Seeing their place in agriculture as multifaceted and important, they eagerly accepted improved education and many modern appliances but often rejected suggestions that conflicted with their own views of the rewards and values of farm life. Drawing on a wide range of sources - government surveys, expert testimony, and contemporary farm journals - many presenting accounts in farm women's own words, Holt carefully contrasts the goals of reformers and farm families."--Jacket.

Mamie Doud Eisenhower was a president's wife who seemed to most Americans like the friend next door. She gave us Mamie pink and Mamie bangs but has stood in the shadows of first ladies who followed. Yet she accomplished more than even her own contemporaries noticed, and her popularity not only enhanced her husband's presidency but also put a distinctive stamp on the role of first lady. This first scholarly biography of Mamie Eisenhower draws on original sources in the Eisenhower Library to paint a realistic and captivating portrait. Marilyn Irvin Holt places her in the context of her time, showing that she was a perfect first lady for the fifties--a stylish grandmother who doted on her family and considered her job to be creating a home life that eased her husband's work tensions. But Holt shows that besides being steadfastly devoted to Ike, Mamie Eisenhower employed her own hidden hand to boost his image. Holt recaptures the winning personality that made Mrs. Eisenhower an important part of both her husband's success and her cultural milieu, and relates how her experience as an army wife-with overseas postings, acquaintance with heads of state, and experience as an accomplished hostess-better prepared her for the White House. Holt reveals that there was much more to Mamie Eisenhower than the housewife she described herself as, showing us instead a resourceful first lady who ran the executive mansion like an army sergeant, relished charity work, and promoted cultural events. As an agent for change, Mamie Eisenhower not only entertained foreign dignitaries but also invited African Americans to the White House when tensions over civil rights were mounting. Holt shares other behind-the-scenes stories of the first lady flying in the face of social and political expectations during the McCarthy era, and also debunks prevailing notions of animosity with Pat Nixon. Although Ike's reputation has rebounded in recent years, Mamie's has remained in the shadows. Holt convincingly shows that there was far more to this neglected first lady than she has received credit for.--Publisher's description.

Division of Continuing Education, University of Kansas, [Lawrence, Kan.] : ©1994.

University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln ; 1994,1992

"From 1850 to 1930 America witnessed a unique emigration and resettlement of at least 200,00 children and several thousand adults, primarily from the East Coast to the West. This 'placing out,' an attempt to find homes for the urban poor, was best known by the 'orphan trains' that carried the children. Holt carefully analyzes the system, initially instituted by the New York Children's Aid Society in 1853, tracking its imitators as well as the reasons for its creation and demise. She captures the children's perspective with the judicious use of oral histories, institutional records, and newspaper accounts. This well-written volume sheds new light on the multifaceted experience of children's immigration, changing concepts of welfare, and Western expansion. It is good, scholarly social history."--Library Journal.

University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln : ©1992.

A study of the system known as placing out, which was practiced in America between 1853 and 1929, in which children, and in some cases women and entire families, were relocated from crowded urban areas and placed in homes in the west, traveling on orphan trains to their new lives.