While there has been growing interest in assimilating women's experience into the social record of human history, relatively few studies have examined the environments women have built and changed in creating history. Through an examination of the process of environmental change as an important part of gender relations and socio-economic activity, Suzanne Mackenzie shows how the environmental activity of women both increased the visibility of their historical creativity and altered existing environments in the resort city of Brighton, England. She documents the multitude of ways in which women changed not only themselves but also the city in which they lived during the decades between the end of the Second World War and the early 1980s.

He's known the world over for his heyday with Dawn, but that glittering 1970's whirl was just one chapter in Tony Orlando's rich life. Orlando began his showbiz career as a teen heartthrob with the single "Halfway to Paradise" and had a second successful act as a record company A&R man before he was lured back into the limelight as a performer. Fans from the l960s to the present day have loved his voice, his stage presence and his hits, like "Knock Three Times" and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree." Now, Tony has written an autobiography as warm and heartfelt as his songs. Halfway to Paradise is rich with stories from the music world-from doo wop to the disco era, from early recording with Gerry Goffin and Carole King to recent concerts in Branson, Missouri and across the United States. It's also full of behind-the-scenes detail of how it felt to be at the top of the entertainment heap-with his #1-rated CBS show, Tony's life in front of and behind the camera was grand, but sometimes not all it seemed. Orlando succumbed to one of the familiar antidotes to the pressures of a big life: drug use, with its predictable toll on family and friendships. And even as his career was soaring, he was unable to save his best friend Freddie Prinze from a fatal downward spiral. With a return to roots-and to the close-knit family that has always sustained him-Tony restored the order and creativity that have allowed him to thrive through four decades of exuberant entertaining. Halfway to Paradise is a wise, funny and spirited life story, and a must-read memoir for fans.

It's widely assumed that Britain in the 1950s experienced a return to traditional gender roles. Popular cinema has typically been seen to represent this era through the dominant image of the 'happy housewife'. "Femininity in the Frame" is a sharply observant account of how British cinema engaged with femininity and women's roles during this important period. Written in a lively and accessible manner, it challenges received understandings, arguing that the period was marked by social unease and anxiety about gender roles and femininity, with much British cinema producing ambiguous messages about feminine identities and the role of women. Through analysing marginalized figures, such as prostitutes, criminals and femmes fatales, and addressing central themes, notably sexuality, marriage and female friendship, Melanie Bell examines how British popular cinema imagined and constructed femininity in this era of rapid social and cultural change. She draws together sources ranging from official reports to film reviews, with case studies of films across genres, including "The Perfect Woman", "Young Wives' Tale", "The Weak and the Wicked" and "A Town Like Alice", to show how new ideas and understandings of femininity were seeping into the cultural imagery at this time. She demonstrates how such films expressed proto-feminist ideas and how they ultimately explored new forms of femininity in a manner that has not until now been recognised.

This work looks at the body of women's fiction written in postwar Britain, up to 1960. It examines the myth of the fairy tale ending and what changes the postwar period has wrought in subverting stereotypes.

Marlene LeGates has written a thorough, lively and accessible overview of Western feminist movements from the Middle Ages through the latter twentieth century. With each chapter containing a timeline and brief excerpts from primary source documents, the text serve as an ideal basis for a history of feminism or women's studies course, or as a supple

DiFonzo's study focuses mainly on the cultural trend toward acceptance. Although he uses formal records such as law texts, statutes, and the decisions of trial and appellate courts, his primary sources are the popular presses of the time, with their opinions, criticisms, and even parodies of divorce and divorce legislation.