For years history was written by white males, which often resulted in the celebration of the accomplishments of other white men. Thankfully, that has been rectified as of late as historians of different backgrounds have started to highlight the contributions of women, minorities, and other marginalized groups. However, we must acknowledge that even among the marginalized groups there are other groups whose contributions are still not recognized.

Throughout the years, Collins has turned her gaze to how women have contributed to shape the U.S. into the country it is today. In this particular book, she focuses on how older ladies (mostly in their 40s and 50s) have added their own threads to fortify the national tapestry.

“The world’s vision of aging women had always been based, in large part, on maternity,” writes New York Times columnist Gail Collins in No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History (Little Brown), her third in a trilogy of histories of U.S. women. The inimitable Collins traces the waxing and waning of older women’s household roles, weight, earnings and related issues. Here she goes past maternity to menopause and beyond—deploying her breezy voice to reel off anecdotes about false teeth, girdles and hair coloring, quack medical advice, and the right to work late in life. Whatever you think is new in lifestyles of the not-rich older dame, it isn’t. Multigenerational households? Around since the Revolution. Teaching as a career? Traditional and poorly paid. Cosmetic surgery? Collins’s first citation is 1922. Some might damn this book with faint praise (“breezy”) but it is underwired with serious scholarship. What angers are the insults—shriveled, etc.—so often hurled once women are past their “seed pod” days. But women live longer, so demography is destiny; here’s to the coming “gerontomatriarchy.” For the record, Collins will be 74 on Nov. 25. –Grace Lichtenstein

Gail Collins is my favorite NYT op-ed columnist, bar none. Her columns are always smart, funny, and incisive. The same is true of her new book, a historical overview of the place of older women in American society. It's extremely well researched and I learned a lot, and Collins's wry sense of humor shines through.

At times it seems as though she wanted to make sure she inserted every interesting historical tidbit she found in her research, but by the end I appreciated the breadth of the tale told.

This is an much needed history that explores the role of women over time in the United States. It is well writtten and engaging.