Introduction: From antebellum hoyden to millennial girl power : the unwritten history (and hidden history) of tomboyism as in the United States
The white tomboy launches a gender backlash : E.D.E.N. Southworth's The hidden hand
The tomboy becomes a cultural phenomenon : Louisa May Alcott's Little women
The tomboy matures into the new woman : Sarah Orne Jewett's A country doctor
The tomboy is reinvented as the exercise enthusiast : Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland
The tomboy becomes the all-Americanizing girl : Willa Cather's O pioneers! and My Antonia
The tomboy shifts from feminist to flapper : Clara Bow in Victor Fleming's Hula
The tomboy turns freakishly queer and queerly freakish : Carson McCullers's The member of the wedding
The tomboy becomes the "odd girl out" : Ann Bannon's Women in the shadows
The tomboy returns to Hollywood : Tatum O'Neal in Peter Bogdanovich's Paper moon
Epilogue: The tomboy finally "comes into the light" : transformations to white feminism, the emergence of whiteness studies and the end of racialized white tomboyism.
Tomboys : a literary and cultural history by Michelle Ann Abate. ISBN 9781592137220. Published by Temple University Press in 2008. Publication and catalogue information, links to buy online and reader comments.