Moving from the restrictive chrysalis of "civilized" tradition and Victorian viewpoints in the East, the women who followed their Army husbands to forts in the West made an excursion into a freedom of throught and action that most of them had never experienced or even imagined. "No one interested in the history of the American West or women’s history should miss this well-written, carefully researched, comprehensive treatment of a subject that previous scholars have largely ignored." —Herman Viola, author of "Exploring the West"