Martha Saxton


Martha Porter Saxton was an American professor of history and women's and gender studies at Amherst College who authored several prominent historical biographies.

Life

Martha Porter Saxton was born in Manhattan on September 3, 1945. Her parents worked in the publishing industry. She graduated from Columbia University, and University of Chicago.
Saxton taught at Amherst College, and Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction.
In 2003, she wrote Being Good: Women's Moral Values in Early America. The TV film The [Jayne Mansfield Story] featuring Loni Anderson and Arnold Schwarzenegger was based on her book Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties.
Saxton also published findings of a classroom experiment on Wikipedia's inclusion of women in historical articles. In her course, "Women's History 1865-Present," Saxton guided students as they identified Wikipedia articles that would benefit from additional information regarding women's involvement in a given topic. Students conducted academic research on the topic of their choosing and then revised Wikipedia pages accordingly. She was a recipient of the PEN New England Award.
Martha Saxton died of lung cancer at her home in Norfolk, Connecticut, on July 18, 2023, at the age of 77.

Publications

Books

  • The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington.,
  • Editor, Amherst in the World. Open Source, Print.
  • Being Good: Women's Moral Values in Early America.,
  • Interpretations of American History with Frank Couvares, Free Press, Spring 2000.
  • Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography .,
  • Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties .,

Essays, reviews, and other

Awards and honors

Scholarly and professional activities