"American women had to battle for property rights and suffrage, and they also had to fight for education. This remarkable struggle is now captured in a volume that not only traces the progression of girls' literacy but also offers insightful perspectives on social mores regarding gender in U.S. history." "Girls and Literacy in America: Historical Perspectives to the Present covers young women's educational activities, from being restricted to reading the Bible in colonial times to partaking in modern-day educational equality. The struggle is defined against a historical context that shows how girls from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, social classes, and regions interacted with printed texts as both writers and readers. The core of the book consists of six essays by distinguished historians who illuminate important historical eras and literary endeavors. The volume: provides the full or excerpted text of primary documents that include diaries, letters, school assignments, newspaper advice columns, short stories, and poems, all by and for girls; offers a chronology of reading and writing done by girls, from the colonial era through the 20th century; and explores the topic from the perspective of historians, educators, parents, and students." "This wealth of primary sources gives readers an opportunity to personally evaluate some of the sources mentioned in the volume's essays. An extensive bibliography of archival holdings, secondary scholarship, and online resources and a comprehensive index complete the coverage."--Jacket.