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Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested,' Francis Bacon wrote in one of his famous essays. At the very least, Margaret A. Nash's study of women and American higher education should be savored, since Women's Education in the United States, 1780-1840 is an intellectual treat. Long before colleges and universities admitted women, a growing variety of academies, institutes, and seminaries opened the higher learning to a small but significant cohort of white middle class students. Nash's elegant book brings to life the social, economic, and political forces that shaped these institutions during their formative decades. And she uncovers the diverse impulses, including the sheer love of learning, that drove women to seek advanced studies. Scholars who think they understand the story of women and higher education in its earliest manifestations are in for a surprise. Nash has set a new standard in her field. - William J. Reese, University of Wisconsin-Madison