Nothing Daunted Summary

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Tyana King-Doorley September 5th, 2014 Capturing the American Spirit Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, tells the story of two best friends, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond “Ros” Underwood, who travel to Colorado in the early 1900’s to work as school teachers. The book is written by Dorothy’s grand-daughter, Dorothy Wickenden, based on her grandmother’s old letters, photographs and newspaper clippings. Dorothy and Ros possessed the same strength, independence, and thirst for knowledge as many other American women; however, they could never be described as average. Dorothy and Ros’s achievements and experiences were extraordinary. Their drive to face things that were uncertain, to want more than what was…show more content…
They grew up during an exciting period of change for women. Women were beginning to go to college, go to work, and many fought for social change, including women’s suffrage. They grew up during the dawn of The New Woman. According to Dr. Karin Enloe, a history professor at Arizona State University, “The New Woman was largely…middle and upper middle class native born white woman… had an enhanced sense of self, gender and mission.”2 The New Woman was often unmarried and college educated3. She was often quite old, proving that a woman’s social usefulness didn’t end with marriage.5The unifying trait of all New Women was a strong sense of…show more content…
They developed a sense of curiosity about the world in college, but were bogged down by strict traditions and gender roles in the real world. They decided to live in Europe for a year, which was one of the only “avenue[s] of escape available to unmarried, well-educated
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    “Nothing Daunted” by Dorothy Wickenden, published by Scribner, has become a popular read for many Americans. To Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, her closest friend, the American West seems as distant as anything they have ever heard of. Dorothy Wickenden’s charming family account, “Nothing Daunted,” where two dauntless society girls from New York decide to travel west to get away from their normal, everyday lives, engages the reader from the very beginning. Wickenden, the executive editor

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