Review of Life at Four Corners: Region, Gender, and Education in a German-Lutheran Community, 1868-1945 By Carol K. Coburn

Authors

Lesley Ann Kawaguchi, Santa Monica College

Date of this Version

1995

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 15:1 (Winter 1995). Copyright © 1995 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Abstract

The strength of this work is Coburn's focus on the way in which boys and girls were socialized into the community and on the roles men and women played in sustaining their households, their community, and their ethnoreligious identity and culture. Furthermore, she has highlighted and offered insight into the German-Lutheran family, a neglected element in many German-American studies. The story of Block Corners's residents is particularly engaging when Coburn draws on individuals, recollections, and anecdotes that illustrate her points, such as first-generation midwife Gesche Mahnken Block and her ties to the informal networks established among the women.