Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts in 2012, a lavishly illustrated account of the fascinating life of the woman who started it all

How did a woman with the desire to help others became the founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America? Born in 1860 in Savannah, Georgia, Juliette Gordon Low grew up having the finest clothes and education. She was expected to be a prim and proper lady, but "Crazy Daisy"--as she was nicknamed by her friends and family--preferred to climb trees, ride horses, and hike. She also tried to find ways to help people in need. She carried that caring spirit with her into adulthood and used it to develop the Girl Scouts of the United States of America in 1912. Today, Juliette's organization continues to empower young girls, improve their self-esteem, and provide them with lifelong skills and a community of sisterhood. Learn more about this strong-willed woman in this addition to the #1 New York Times bestselling series!

"Ask the girls," Juliette Gordon Low always said when a problem came up. "They'll know what's best." But in 1912, no one thought that children should be listened to. No one except "Daisy," that is. She wanted girls to learn that they could be active and make a real difference in the world. She overcame both deafness and the disapproval of her family to establish the Girl Scouts. Now, more than four million girls are Girl Scouts in the United States alone.

A “fascinating” biography of an early Chicago settler, a social and cultural force in the city, and one of America’s first female historians (Chicago Sun-Times). When Juliette Kinzie first visited Chicago in 1831, it was anything but a city. An outpost in the shadow of Fort Dearborn, it had no streets, no sidewalks, no schools, no river-spanning bridges. And with two hundred disconnected residents, it lacked any sense of community. In the decades that followed, not only did Juliette witness the city’s transition from Indian country to industrial center, but she was instrumental in its development, one of the women in this “man’s city” who worked to create an urban and urbane world, often within their own parlors. Here we finally get to experience the rise of Chicago from the view of one of its founding mothers. In a moving portrait of a trailblazing and complicated woman, Keating takes us to the corner of Cass and Michigan (now Wabash and Hubbard), Juliette’s home base. Through Juliette’s eyes, our understanding of early Chicago expands from a city of boosters and speculators to include the world women created in and between households. We see the development of Chicago society, first inspired by Eastern cities and later coming into its own midwestern ways. We also see the city become a community, as it developed its intertwined religious, social, educational, and cultural institutions. Keating draws on a wealth of sources, including hundreds of Juliette’s personal letters, allowing Juliette to tell much of her story in her own words. Juliette’s death in 1870, just a year before the infamous fire, seemed almost prescient. She left her beloved Chicago right before the physical city as she knew it vanished in flames. But now her history lives on, in a biography that offers a new perspective on Chicago’s past. “An authority on Chicago’s history, Keating draws on a trove of family documents . . . Illustrations are a particular strength of the book, including maps, portraits, and photographs of houses—the latter are particularly apt because the book is an exploration of peoples’ lives within households.” —Journal of the Early Republic “Chronicles the history of women in early colonial America, an area that benefits from this addition to the genre.” —The American Historical Review “[A] remarkable book.” —The Journal of American History

In the early years of the twentieth century, Americans began to recognize adolescence as a developmental phase distinct from both childhood and adulthood. This awareness, however, came fraught with anxiety about the debilitating effects of modern life on adolescents of both sexes. For boys, competitive sports as well as "primitive" outdoor activities offered by fledging organizations such as the Boy Scouts would enable them to combat the effeminacy of an overly civilized society. But for girls, the remedy wasn't quite so clear. Surprisingly, the "girl problem"?a crisis caused by the transition from a sheltered, family-centered Victorian childhood to modern adolescence where self-control and a strong democratic spirit were required of reliable citizens?was also solved by way of traditionally masculine, adventurous, outdoor activities, as practiced by the Girl Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, and many other similar organizations. Susan A. Miller explores these girls' organizations that sprung up in the first half of the twentieth century from a socio-historical perspective, showing how the notions of uniform identity, civic duty, "primitive domesticity," and fitness shaped the formation of the modern girl.

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