Nacy, Michele J. 1947-

views updated

NACY, Michele J. 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born 1947; married; children: four. Education: Kansas State University, Ph.D., 1992.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Tacoma, Campus Box 358436, 1900 Commerce St., Tacoma, WA 98402-3100. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. University of Washington, Tacoma, faculty member; also taught American history and women's history courses at several universities and colleges, including adjunct professor appointments at Oakland University, Rochester, MI; Wayne State University, Detroit, MI; Oakland Community College, Oakland county, MI; and Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA.

WRITINGS:

Members of the Regiment: Army Officers' Wives on the Western Frontier, 1865-1890, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her first book, Members of the Regiment: Army Officers' Wives on the Western Frontier, 1865-1890, historian Michele J. Nacy, whose own husband is an officer in the army, draws on letters and diaries to recount the lives of eleven women who followed their army-officer husbands to the frontier. Despite the difficult living conditions and no formal recognition of their efforts by the military, these women tried to maintain a domestic, middle-class routine that not only included their husbands, but often encompassed their entire regiment. As a result of this effort, according to Nacy, the women had a significant impact on military structure and mission of the time, an impact that has carried on to current times with modern army wives expected to continue in the same tradition. Writing in Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, Sarah Eppler Janda commented: "Engaging and concise, this book is in many ways ideal for an undergraduate course on Women in the American West." Janda added that the book "contributes nicely to … Women's West scholarship, which seeks to convey the diversity of women and their experiences on the frontier." Journal of Women's History contributor Marilyn E. Hegarty noted that the author "restores historical agency to her 'remarkable' women."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of Women's History, summer, 2001, Marilyn E. Hegarty, review of Members of the Regiment: Army Officers' Wives on the Western Frontier, 1865-1890, p. 216.

Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, fall-winter, 2001, Sarah Eppler Janda, review of Members of the Regiment, p. 81.