Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation

[cornerofmadness]

Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation by Tiya Miles

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I won this short history book via Goodreads giveaway which did not influence my review. I very much enjoyed this intersectional look at the way natural settings aid and alter these women's life. Oddly enough I knew more going into this about Harriet Tubman and Zitkala-Ša than I did Louise May Alcott (who arguably three of the best known women in this treatise). Harriet's story was up first and probably the most thoroughly explored. I confess I never thought much about Tubman and nature, though I knew more about her adult days than her growing up so I found that very interesting.

As for Alcott, other than what she wrote, I knew next to nothing and I suppose I only knew about Zitkala-Ša because when I was a doctor at Pine Ridge reservation I tried to absorb as much as I could find on Lakota history and culture. That said, there was a lot to learn and I enjoyed Miles's take on their histories.

She also goes on a lot of side journeys, visiting other women as she spins the main female focus of that chapter's story. These never feel extraneous or distracting. While the main focus is on nature and its influence on these women's lives, Miles does explore other things including racism which is naturally part and parcel of Harriet Tubman's life and also of very many others, including the girls at the Indian schools, which were often places of nightmares. I really enjoyed the chapter on the girls basketball team.

If you have an interest in nature and women's history, you'll enjoy this book.



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