Jerri Bell and Tracy Crow, "It's My Country Too"

Women have officially been allowed to serve in the military since 1917, but they’ve fought in America’s wars since the Revolution. In this illuminating anthology of women’s writings about their experiences in war, editors Bell, a retired naval officer and the managing editor of O-Dark-Thirty, and Crow, a former Marine Corps officer and the author of Eyes Right, present a wide range of excerpts from diaries, letters, oral histories, pension depositions, and published and unpublished memoirs. From the Revolution and Civil Wars, when women soldiers had to disguise themselves as men, to the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they’ve had to contend with sexual harassment from male colleagues, women have served with courage, resourcefulness, and resilience. This is military history as it has not been written before.

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Produced by Tom Warren