Judith R. Baskin. Midrashic Women: Formations of the Feminine in Rabbinic Literature. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2002. xii, 232 pp

Baskin's book should be required reading, along with the works of Neusner, Boyarin, Wegner, Hauptman, Brooten, and Kraemer, for those interested in Jewish women in late antiquity. It is methodologically sophisticated, yet not jargonistic or overly determined by method or theory. Its limitations are a result of the characteristics of the rabbinic documents, notoriously difficult to use for a comprehensive study on any topic; the vastness and variety of editorial styles of the rabbinic corpus virtually assure that one will both miss relevant data and confront an unmanageable variety of opinions on any given topic.