Nicole Overmoyer's Reviews > Expect Great Things!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women

The official & full title of this non-fiction history is "EXPECT GREAT THINGS!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women" but that seemed like a lot to put in the title of my review.

Which is no commentary at all on the quality of the book other than an agreement that the Katharine Gibbs School, which I had never heard of until I got the chance to read Ms. Krefft's book, absolutely did revolutionize and shape the role of women in America and American history in general. It could possibly be argued that the subtitle is too restrictive given the impact the women who studied at the school had on all of us through to this day, but that would also in no way take away from the value of the book.

And the value is largely in womens' history, and the stories of women we might not have ever heard of but who have changed our lives.

The school Katharine Gibbs started when she was left a mostly penniless widow with two young sons to raise is the thread that ties this particular part of history together. Being born out of Katharine Gibbs' near ruin because she was entirely at the mercy of men and their decisions, and her subsequent resolve that no woman would be in that place if she could help it made the school incredibly important in a wide variety of ways.

The author weaves a huge number of personal, individual stories together seamlessly as the passage of time in the American story carries on. It was a pleasure to read and I learned so much from the story of this school.

I received a an early copy of EXPECT GREAT THINGS! from NetGalley and Algonquin Books.