Reddit Reddit reviews One Thousand White Women (One Thousand White Women Series)

We found 4 Reddit comments about One Thousand White Women (One Thousand White Women Series). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Literature & Fiction
Books
Genre Literature & Fiction
Historical Fiction
Biographical Historical Fiction
One Thousand White Women (One Thousand White Women Series)
St Martin s Press
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4 Reddit comments about One Thousand White Women (One Thousand White Women Series):

u/undercurrents · 3 pointsr/AskWomen

1000 White Women: the Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

> One Thousand White Women is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians" program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.

edit: this is one of my all-time favorite books. It is incredibly well written and hard to put down. It's like the book by Philip Roth, Plot for America, where it takes historical fact and writes a 'what if' scenario had things gone the other way. In real life, the Native Americans believe that if a child is born to parents of two different tribes, the child is equally accepted in both tribes. So as a way to avoid war, tribes came to Washington DC and proposed to the Grant administration that they trade 1000 white women for 1000 horses, and therefore the women could bear child with Native American men, and the mixed children would help integrate the two societies. In real life, the administration refused and also acted horrified by the insinuation of trading women for horses even though women did not hold a very high status in society. The book goes off the premise that the government agrees and the women who volunteer have no other options for themselves and see this as a hopeful opportunity to change their lives for the better (freed slaves, women committed to mental institutions for "melancholia" or "promiscuity", and other women who were held with low regard in society).

u/librariowan · 2 pointsr/suggestmeabook

I really enjoyed Jim Fergus's One Thousand White Women. It's an epistolary novel about a government program to assimilate cultures by having white women marry Native Americans.

You could also try Molokai by Alan Brennert. It tells the story of a young Hawaiian girl sent to live in a leprosy colony in the late 1800's. There is some sexual content but it's not graphic or x-rated.

u/1demerit · 1 pointr/todayilearned

People can sell the damnedest things as "historical fiction." If you want to check out some prime author wank, look at the negative reviews here and the author's responses: http://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-White-Women-Journals/dp/0312199430

u/insilico23 · 1 pointr/whatsthatbook

Is it One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus?