Noralee Frankel is the Assistant Director, Women, Minorities, and Teaching at the American Historical Association. Her books include Freedom's Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi and Break Those Chains at Last: African Americans, 1860-1880 (OUP, 1996). She lives in the Washington, D.C, area.

"Her story is a fascinating one and also follows the culture of the time."--Graffiti

"[T]he fine study of famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee written by Noralee Frankel...Frankel paints a complex portrait of a woman who was a stripper, writer, actress, talk show host, and patron of the arts; all the while raising important questions regarding gender and class in twentieth-century America...Noralee Frankel has crafted a fine scholarly entertainment biography which should serve as a model for historians. Stripping Gypsy removes the hyperbole surrounding the renowned stripper and unveils the struggles of this intelligent and ambitious woman to push the boundaries of gender and class in twentieth-century America."--Ron Briley, History News Network

"BUST readers who are fans or practitioners of neo-burlesque will be thrilled to discover that historian Noralee Frankel has created the first truly scholarly biography of Gypsy Rose Lee. And in the same way that much of today's neoburlesque phenomenon is fueled by feminist underpinnings, so too does Frankel, in this exhaustively researched work, reveal the forward-thinking politics of this burlesque pioneer."--Bust Magazine

"[W]ell-researched...[Y]ou find yourself turning pages quickly and yelling out factoids to beleaguered friends and family in the other room...It is simply impossible to read these books and not fall in love with Gypsy's tenacity, wit and confounding, beguiling, oh-so-American mix of self-mythology and self-awareness."--Washington Post

"Frankel...presents a Gypsy you might not recognize from the glossy stage and screen bios of her life: here, she is conflicted, even tormented, by her choices and life paths. A new panning of some familiar material, perfect for a poolside lounge chair."--AARP Bulletin

"Frankel's biography [is] a good starting point for those wishing to learn more about Gypsy Rose Lee, largely owing to its start-to-finish overview of her life."--Yahoo! Shine

"[H]er meticulously researched book...Stripping Gypsy is an intriguing and uncomplicated read, telling Gypsy Rose Lee's story from childhood to death...It certainly sheds some light on a woman who spent so much time protecting her image and the reality of herself."--Sacramento Book Review

"[Stripping Gypsy is] impressive in its research...Frankel's is valuable for its rich lode of period detail."--Open Letters

"While Noralee Frankel's lively biography of America's most famous stripper is thoroughly researched and cleverly written, Frankel's greatest accomplishments lie in disentangling fact from fiction in the life and work of a woman who survived by masking the truth from herself, her audience, and those she loved."--Leslie Fishbein, Journal of American History