Kevin Byrne

Selecting a cover image for an issue of the OAH Magazine of History demands judgment. The cover ought to convey the theme of the issue and, if possible, its time period. Not all themes connect to a specific era, however, and the current issue provides a case in point. While its title is "Recent Directions in Gender and Women's History," recognizing important connections between these two fields, the principal emphasis is on Gender History. Guest editors Nancy Cott and Drew Gilpin Faust define the study in their Foreword as an exploration of "the constantly present but always changing patterns of differentiation between womanhood and manhood, masculinity and femininity." One of the messages central to the collection of articles and lesson plans they have assembled is that Gender History--as a prism through which we examine the past--has impacted interpretations of U.S. history across the chronological spectrum of the discipline and all its subfields. Whether the area under consideration is the world of politics or foreign relations or social activism, whether the time frame focuses on the American Revolution or the Roaring Twenties, whether the subject of investigation is young women working in the mills of industrializing New England or the life of Harriet Tubman or Teddy Roosevelt, the prism of Gender History can deepen our appreciation of that aspect of the past under consideration. What one image can capture that reality in its entirety?

No single image can. So, for this issue of the Magazine, we searched for a cover that would communicate something central to the theme but could transcend a particular time period. Most likely, our readers correctly will surmise that the cover photo was taken during the 1940s, specifically during World War II. What cues evoke that response? Styles of dress and coiffures, the massive aircraft engine, and the knowledge that both government and industry encouraged women to enter the labor force in positions once designated "men's work" are probably the keys that locate the photo chronologically at a glance. All that is true. The women pictured here are working on an engine for a C-47 cargo plane at the Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach, California, in 1942. The lens of Gender History, though, can help us arrive at an even more nuanced appreciation of the photo. Photographer Alfred T. Palmer indeed chose to picture three women performing tasks previously reserved for men, but none of these women are dressed for the grimy work of adjusting aircraft engines. They are not wearing dresses or skirts, but neither are they garbed in full-length industrial aprons or coveralls and work boots, as other photos of women working on the same factory floor show. Palmer wants us to see that the definition of gendered work has changed during the wartime emergency. He pictures for us a woman in pants and casual footwear. Yet his image also plays upon ideas of more traditional dress for women, especially as we examine the workers on the top of the engine. They wear tasteful sweaters, more appropriate for an office than for the assembly line. Perhaps he wishes us to conclude that these workers have retained their femininity even though the jobs they tackle were once outside the bounds of "women's employment." Change and continuity coexist. One is led to recollect the words of editors Cott and Faust about the definition of Gender History: "the constantly present but always changing patterns of differentiation between womanhood and manhood, masculinity and femininity." The image is complex, as is the case of what it represents.

The articles and lesson plans in this edition of the OAH Magazine of History will encourage readers to appreciate the layers of complexity that Gender History can uncover for all of us. They describe and exemplify ways in which the explorations in this field and the related field of Women's History have opened new avenues for interpretation, as well as for enlivening our teaching about the American past. Building on the issue's theme, the staff at the Gilder Lehrman Institute also has provided us with a most apt document from their collection, which we have reprinted here. The letter from Susan B. Anthony to a New York politician about amending the state constitution to allow voting without regard to gender or race reminds readers that both traits once restricted that right. Voting was once synonymous with"manhood" (and "whiteness"), but the definition has changed over time. Libby Garland's essay provides an informative background for understanding the document, and a Teacher's Guide supplies useful suggestions for bringing it into the classroom.

The final essay in this issue moves in a different direction. Writing in our series "America on the World Stage," historian Melvyn P. Leffler has produced an insightful examination of the recent scholarship on the subject of the cold war. His article will bring up to speed anyone who has not had been able to remain current with the outpouring of information and interpretations on the cold war that have emerged subsequent to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Leffler observes that historians, political scientists, and economists are currently evaluating that conflict in a larger global context than their predecessors had done, and they are weaving their findings into "the evolving fabric of international economic and political conditions in the twentieth century." The resulting essay provides a highly informative, integrated way of understanding the cold war and its relationship to larger forces at work over the century.

To conclude my remarks, I would also like to change directions and focus attention not on the Magazine of History but on the upcoming OAH Annual Meeting in San José. I especially would like to call your attention to issues related to teaching U.S. history. A dozen different "Focus on Teaching" sessions are spread across the convention schedule, several of them on Saturday and Sunday, when sessions are more widely available to precollegiate teachers. Additionally, precollegiate teachers are invited to stop by the Teacher Hospitality Center in the Exhibit Hall to relax, share some refreshment, and chat with colleagues, OAH staff, and others. I certainly will make every effort to be at the Hospitality Center several times during the meeting. And more generally, I invite all our readers attending the annual meeting to introduce yourselves to me if our paths cross. I look forward to meeting you and discussing your observations about the Magazine in particular and about teaching U.S. history in general.