Luchetti's book is a beauty, conveying all the joy and hardship, freedom and hard work, creativeness and schooling that went into the experience of being a child during those brief years we call the settling of the West.
Luchetti has written several books on Western themes, and this one, like all the others, is chock full of wonderful archival photographs, anecdotes told in the person's own words, snippets of letters and journals...
Wonderful!

I read every single word of this book, and that is quite rare for me. Anyone, no matter what their interests, would find something of interest in this book. This book documents, through first person accounts as well as photographs,the daily life of our country's western pioneers. The hardships these families went through make our lives seem simple in comparison. The rate at which family members died, the difficulty of finding enough food or nutritious food to eat, the constant dangers of wildlife attack, Indian attack, or unclean conditions are all well documented in this fabulously written book. The courage, fortitude, and generosity of these settlers can be an inspiration to all. The book also documents the experiences of Asian, Black, and Spanish settlers. You don't have to be interested in history to read this book; you merely have to be interested in the human condition.

This is one of my favorite books. I keep it on the coffee table and several of my guests agree and are also looking for a new edition to be printed.

What a fabulous book! Far from the names and dates and heroic men which bog down many western histories, this history chronicles the stomachs of the priests, soldiers, and homesteaders who were dreaming of fresh butter, unwormy flour, and other delectables while expanding the American frontier. Memorable photos include soldier's wives cooking in a tent to escape the desert heat, a Franciscan priest frying eggs under an umbrella, and a nice Mormon couple having tea on the prairie.

The title grabbed my 48 year old body's attention. The first section of the book gave me insights into how I can help myaelf and my 48 year old man through this phsyical process we are in. But the recipes.....each one is introduced with explanation as to how the ingredients work for you health. They are each a unique combination of wonderful things, easy to prepare and fun to serve and eat! Plenty of vegetairian recipes!

Hollywood actually had a good idea, but couldn't help dumbing it down to the point the show was more of a pulp romance than based on fact.

This book is the real thing: women struggling with families, school, and society to become physicians. Of course, there was lots of male opposition, but there were those men who helped, too. One respected medical professor told his all-male class that they had a "sister" in the class and he expected his students to treat her as one, and they did. Of course, she still had to work twice as hard as the men and be twice as good, but it's a lot easier if you don't have a classful of people trying to trip you up at every opportunity. Also, Brigham Young, of the Mormon Church encouraged women to become physicians; at times the church would even subsidize the tuition for medical school.

Even after their degree, women still had to convince people that despite the fact they were women, they truly were good physicians, which meant doing things that male physicians might find "beneath" them: performing emergency surgery on a horse, anesthesizing a $1,500 prized sow, taking care of basic comforts and needs of their patients (hauling water, bringing blankets, writing letters for the illiterate).

And as for the photographs, I'll bet you never saw so many confident, professional-looking 19th - turn of the century women in your life!

This book truly shows how hard women had it back then, and makes one thankful everytime they think they've got it bad. Fantastic pictures! A real eye opener!

For myself, my burgeoning interest for anything related to 1850's western life was prompted by a visit to Bodie, a ghost town on the Eastern Sierras in California. Amazingly intact, this mining town preserves life as it was back then, down to the most minute detail and one that you can visualize through windows, storefronts and streets as you walk through the town. A trip to the museum offered more incredibly intimate and thought provoking glimpses into what the people's lives were like in those days. The life they lived was very difficult as profiled by the many wonderful books and resources sold there and available all along the Eastern Sierra towns. I purchased a few books detailing the history and people of Bodie. Soon, I became fascinated by the experiences the women had. Of the many books I have bought, I found this one, _Women of the West_ to be truly one of the best when it comes to portraying and historically presenting authentic writings and pictures of the nineteenth century "pioneer" women in the Western United States.

Gripping and personal diaries reveal their thoughts and feelings as they travel to the west in covered wagons. Upon their arrival to their new "home", the journals reflect their personal situations as they struggle to settle the land and etch out a living. Some of the women are widowed by the time they arrive out West. Some are burdened with more children, complications of pregnancy and perhaps the death of the young ones. Against staggering obstacles, these women march on with such integrity and strength that it appears nothing less than heroic. Not given to whining and bitter complaining, their tone is of acceptance and self-reliance.

The beauty of this book is in the wide assortment and many pictures that chronicle the women, their home and life style. The pictures are clear, large and detailed, so one can savor the peek into an 1850's home, hearth and kitchen, not to mention the lands and buisnesses they worked so hard on.

There is so much offered to the reader, I can only say that this book is really a treasure: true stories and pictures that bring a virtual museum into your own hands.

I think we tend to forget that people and times in the past were as alive and could be as complex as things are today. I think this book could be summed up by the picture of the woman receiving title to her land. She's arranged for a photographer to come to her home, instead of posing at the studio. The land agent has affably agreed to travel to her home and participates in the pose the woman surely thought of herself: the act of handing over title to the land. One other interesting thing is that she isn't wearing a hat or bonnet - she wants everyone to see her face. She's standing in front of her house wearing her best outfit, not looking at the agent, but looking at the camera, her face reflecting the pride of hard-won independence and well-earned ownership.

Lots of great stories, good writing, well-researched, and the photographs themselves are worth the price of the book.