DOC The Healer's Calling: Women and Medicine in Early New England by Rebecca J. Tannenbaum in History

Description

Holding the Line; Barbara Kingsolver's first non-fiction book; is the story of women's lives transformed by an a signal event. Set in the small mining towns of Arizona; it is part oral history and part social criticism; exploring the process of empowerment which occurs when people work together as a community. Like Kingsolver's award-winning novels; Holding the Line is a beautifully written book grounded on the strength of its characters.Hundreds of families held the line in the 1983 strike against Phelps Dodge Copper in Arizona. After more than a year the strikers lost their union certification; but the battle permanently altered the social order in these small; predominantly Hispanic mining towns. At the time the strike began; many women said they couldn't leave the house without their husband's permission. Yet; when injunctions barred union men from picketing; their wives and daughters turned out for the daily picket lines. When the strike dragged on and men left to seek jobs elsewhere; women continued to picket; organize support; and defend their rights even when the towns were occupied by the National Guard. "Nothing can ever be the same as it was before;" said Diane McCormick of the Morenci Miners Women's Auxiliary. "Look at us. At the beginning of this strike; we were just a bunch of ladies."