Only Efficient Instrument

Many farsighted women writers in nineteenth-century America made thoughtful and sustained use of newspapers and magazines to effect social and political change. “The Only Efficient Instrument”: American Women Writers and the Periodical, 1837 - 1916 examines these pioneering efforts and demonstrates that American women had a vital presence in the political and intellectual communities of their day. Women writers and editors of diverse social backgrounds and ethnicities realized very early that th