A Common Life: A Voice from the Progressive Era

I'm excited to announce the publication of my new book A Common Life: A Voice from the Progressive Era on September 28, 2022! This blog will tell some of the stories that didn't make into the book, background on the diary, and other topics related to A Common Life.

Mary Briggs image over background of her handwriting with book title and author's name

Based on diary kept by Mary Ann Mosher Briggs (my great-great-grandmother) from 1888 until she died in 1922, the book looks beyond the diary entries she wrote. It digs into the people, places, and events behind her words and what was going on in the world outside her farm in Dallas County, Iowa at the time. The context helps mo
re-fully illuminate her life, the one she referred to in her first diary entry with "it is but a common life." 

The diary years almost perfectly overlap what we now call "The Progressive Era," a time of massive changes in technology and society. Her diary gives a first-person account of some of those changes and how they intersected with her life.

The book is available on Amazon in print and ebook formats, or you can search for "A Common Life by Sue Burns."  If you're local to the Des Moines area, you can also find it at Beaverdale Books.

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