Describes what happened to the Titanic survivors on that awful night and how the experience shaped their future lives.

"It is 1912. Against all odds, the Titanic is sinking. As desperate hands emerge from the icy water, a few lucky row boats float in the darkness. On the boats are four survivors. Reg, a handsome young steward working in the first-class dining room; Annie, an Irishwoman travelling to America with her children; Juliet, a titled English lady who is pregnant and unmarried, and George, a troubled American millionaire. In the wake of the tragedy, each of these people must try to rebuild their lives. But how can life ever be the same again when you've heard over a thousand people dying in the water around you?"--Page [4] of cover.

At a crucial time in American history, narratives of women in command or imperiled at sea contributed to the construction of a national rhetoric. Robin Miskolcze makes her case by way of careful readings of images of women at sea before the Civil War in her book Women and Children First. Though the sea has traditionally been interpreted as the province of men, women have gone to sea as mothers, wives, figureheads, and slaves. In fact, in the nineteenth century, women at sea contributed to the formation of an ethics of survival that helped to define American ideals. This study examines, often for the first time, images of women at sea in antebellum narratives ranging from novels and sermons to newspaper accounts and lithographs. Anglo-American women in antebellum sea narratives are often portrayed as models of American ideals derived from women’s seemingly innate Christian self-sacrifice. Miskolcze argues that these ideals, in conjunction with the maritime directive of “women and children first” during sea disasters, in turn defined a new masculine individualism, one that was morally minded, rooted in Christian principles, and dedicated to preserving virtue. Further, Miskolcze contends that without the antebellum sea narratives portraying the Christian self-sacrifice of women, the abolitionist cause would have suffered. African American women appealed to the directive of “women and children first” to make manifest their own womanhood, and by extension, their own humanity.

Francine Prose's first collection of stories displays her gift for revealing the mysteries and contradictions at the heart of contemporary life. A young woman, disappointed by her lover, discovers that "what you'd hoped was the start of your life could turn out to be a scene from someone else's porn movie." A college professor is disturbed by his attraction to the physical therapist caring for his dying father. A Manhattan gallery owner baby-sitting her infant nephew watches herself pretending to be her suburban housewife sister. With wit and compassion, Prose's collection reminds us that nothing is as we've foreseen ... not even our own desires.

Girl, World is a collection of stories about survival: women discovering their untapped strengths and their metamorphoses into becoming whole. Mixing lyricism, stark realism, emotional depth, and vivacious language, Alex Poppe has crafted unforgettable female characters who navigate through places where the big political picture is captured in their personal stories.

Comparing the affluent U.S. of today to the Titanic (which, as a luxury liner, nevertheless lacked lifeboats for steerage women and children), Sidel contends in this realistic appraisal that despite the women's movement, social and economic trends of the last 20 years, especially the divorce rate and mechanization of industry, have reduced to bare survival hundreds of thousands of already impoverished women and children. Many are older women, battered wives or female heads of families, asserts Sidel (who interviewed several of them), and they are often victims of sex and racial discrimination in the workplace or of government cutbacks in human services. Following Sweden's example, the U.S., she argues, should develop policies to strengthen family life through universal entitlements; should pay women better wages, provide family planning, maternity leaves and prenatal care, along with day and after-school care.