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USING AREA STUDIES COLLECTIONS CASE STUDIES: AMERICAN JEWISH WOMEN AND LATINAS CONCLUSION AREA STUDIES EXTERNAL SITES VISIT/CONTACT |
CONCLUSION
From their very earliest settlements in territory that would ultimately become the United States, Latinas, Jewish women, and many more helped weave the fabric of American society. Their steady influx in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries continued to add color and texture to the nation's evolving design. Uncovering the words and actions of women and their families through the assistance of the staff of the Area Studies divisions and using the foreign-language collections and the special-format collections at the Library of Congress will help you tap into some of the origins of women's history across the land. Such broad-based research enhances our understanding of the multilayered and gendered dimensions of American culture. At the same time, foreign-language materials test common wisdom about the nature of colonization, the interplay of the dominant society with the “other,” and generalizations concerning the factors that serve to construct culture. Continuing research usually reveals that women cannot be reduced to any single set of characteristics or fully described by any one image. The experiences of individual women in each generation add additional layers to their basic identities, as shaped by race, class, genes, and gender. Perhaps what is most remarkable is women's strength in the face of new and persistent challenges. Although not every answer can be found in the Library's foreign-language collections, its documents are certain to lead us in new directions and prompt different insightful responses. In doing so, they will undoubtedly help create a new vision of our past. [Top] |
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