Pick of the Week Well, it would have to be Drew Gilpin Faust, wouldn't it?

In honor of Faust's ascension, I recommend her book, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize in 1997.

I can't say as I've read it myself, but Publisher's Weekly writes,

Women of the South after 1865 confronted both their doubt about what they could accomplish by themselves and their desire to avoid reliance on men. The women's rights movement in the South thus grew from necessity and disappointment-a sharp contrast to the ebullient optimism of its Northern counterpart. Faust's provocative analysis of a complex subject merits a place in all collections of U.S. history.

And here (and here) are a couple of interesting web conversations about the book....  ¶ 10:22 AM