Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880-1930

Starting with Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Meyerowitz uses turn-of-the-century Chicago as a case study to explore both the image and the reality of single women's experiences as they lived apart from their families. In an era when family all but defined American womanhood, these women—neither victimized nor liberated—created new social ties and subcultures to cope with the conditions of urban life.

"Brilliant. . . . Gracefully written, and mercifully free from the jargon that often plagues soci...