Pioneer Girls

Like most American females, I grew up on Laura Ingalls Wilders’ Little House books. I battled my classmates over every one of the nine titles in our school library. Also, like many Americans, my family routinely watched the television series (every Monday night!). I never knew much about Wilder outside of that series, and I certainly had no inkling of the Little House books’ impact on American society in a wider sense. Therefore, I learned much this week reading Judith Thurman’s profile of Wilder and her daughter Rose in the The New Yorker. Thurman briefly reviews the women’s biographies, and she reveals their combined, and continuing (via Reagan-style Conservatism), influence on America’s political culture. Recommended.