Should be called A *Brief* Black Women's History of the United States. This book touched on so many different figures throughout U.S. history, it could have easily been a much much longer book, even taking into account the gaps in documentary evidence in the early years. As it is, A Black Women's History of the U.S. is a good place to start to learn more about the black women whose lives it touches upon. A Black Women's History of the United States would be a good history textbook; I wish I could have read this when I was working on my history degree! It's full of examples of how to read between the lines of primary sources to get a view of the figures in the background. Many sections could are good examples of how to construct history paper paragraphs using the evidence in the sources to draw conclusions.