Chad Colledge
February 22, 2009
History T Th 10:45
In Kathleen Kennedy’s book “Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens” She argues that women’s role of motherhood had changed because of World War I. She also argues that Gender roles became more strict, women were supposed to have children and raise them to fight in the war and happily die for their country. The women of that time were asked to be patriotic mothers and support the war with their whole being. She also mentions that women are used to define American Values, all women are supposed to be the perfect American in this time by giving birth to sons and raising those sons to want to fight and die for their country.
Kennedy is a history professor at Western Washington University. She has written other noted books such as “Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way,” and “Athena's Daughters: Television's New Women Warriors.” Some sources that she used to write this book are things like the Emma Goldman Papers, Kate Richards O’Hare papers and other papers written by those mentioned in the book. Kennedy used newspapers written from 1914 all the way up to 1923. She used newspapers like, American Socialist, Mother Earth, and the New Republic just to name a few. Kennedy used books written by those who she was writing about like the book entitled “A Confession” written by Rose Pastor Stokes, and “World Peace: A Spectacle Drama in Three Acts written by Kate Richards O’Hare and her husband Frank P. O’Hare. Kennedy even books written by Theodore Roosevelt were used in Kennedy’s telling of this story. Kennedy used court transcribes, autobiographies and dairies as well to help tell their story. She also uses a large amount of secondary sources to help her write her book. Likes books written by historians like Bonnie Stepenoff and Lewis Todd.
One of the strength in Kennedy’s book is that she talks about how most women are teachers and influence the...