Now an independent scholar, Tolley was previously affiliated with the School of Education and Leadership of the U. of Notre Dame de Namur, California. Hers is the first published historical study comparing the science education of adolescent girls and boys. Tolley explores the origins and development of the sciences and mathematics in the formal curricula for females from the American Revolution to the mid-19th century, the rise of natural history study for women from 1840 to 1880, and the structural and cultural obstacles emerging in the early 20th century that discouraged young women from advanced studies of the sciences. Distributed by Taylor and Francis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)