A groundbreaking history of the American Revolution that ""vividly recounts Colonial women's struggles for independence-for their nation and, sometimes, for themselves....
Her
lively book reclaims a vital part of our political legacy"" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and
danger into the life of every American.
In this book, Carol Berkin
shows us how women played a vital role throughout the conflict.
The women of the
Revolution were most active at home, organizing boycotts of British goods, raising
funds for the fledgling nation, and managing the family business while struggling
to maintain a modicum of normalcy as husbands, brothers and fathers died.
Yet Berkin
also reveals that it was not just the men who fought on the front lines, as in the
story of Margaret Corbin, who was crippled for life when she took her husband's place
beside a cannon at Fort Monmouth.
This incisive and comprehensive history illuminates
a fascinating and unknown side of the struggle for American independence.
By:
Carol Berkin
Imprint: Vintage U S
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 202mm,
Width: 131mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 198g
ISBN: 9781400075324
ISBN 10: 1400075327
Pages: 194
Publication Date: 15 February 2006
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
INTRODUCTION: Clio’s Daughters, Lost and Found CHAPTER ONE: “The Easy Task of Obeying” Englishwomen’s Place in Colonial Society CHAPTER TWO: “They say it is tea that caused it” Women Join the Protest Against English Policy CHAPTER THREE: “You can form no idea of the horrors” The Challenges of a Home-Front War CHAPTER FOUR: “Such a sordid set of creatures in human Figure” Women Who Followed the Army CHAPTER FIVE: “How unhappy is war to domestic happiness” Generals’ Wives and the War CHAPTER SIX: “A journey a Crosse ye wilderness” Loyalist Women in Exile CHAPTER SEVEN: “The women must hear our words” The Revolution in the Lives of Indian Women CHAPTER EIGHT: “The day of jubilee is come” African American Women and the American Revolution CHAPTER NINE: “It was I who did it” Spies, Saboteurs, Couriers, and Other Heroines CHAPTER TEN: “There is no Sex in soul” The Legacy of Revolution Notes Acknowledgments Index
Reviews for Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence
Berkin vividly recounts Colonial women's struggles for independence-for their nation and, sometimes, for themselves.... [Her] lively book reclaims a vital part of our political legacy. -Los Angles Times Book Review Compact and informative ... one is simply bowled over by the courage and fortitude of these women. -The Washington Times Berkin is a great storyteller ... her dedication to telling the stories of these women is evident. -The Christian Science Monitor [Berkin] illuminates the many way women on both sides of the conflict performed as couriers, spies, saboteurs, camp followers [and] noble and enduring wives. -The Washington Post Book World Carol Berkin has merged the craft of the skilled historian and the sensitivity of a master storyteller with her sensibilities as a pioneering scholar of women to produce the best narrative of how women of diverse backgrounds experienced the American Revolution. -Edith Gelles, author of Portia: The World of Abigail Adams Revolutionary Mothers is an accessible, lively blend of great story-telling and recent scholarship, the most comprehensive study yet published of women in the American Revolution. Readers of all descriptions will enjoy and learn from it. -Mary Beth Norton, author of In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 Revolutionary Mothers is vintage Carol Berkin, incisive, thoughtful and spiced with vivid anecdotes that add another dimension to the narrative. Don't miss it. -Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution Revolutionary Mothers is a treat to read. Not only is Carol Berkin a skillful writer, but she has placed women squarely at the center of the independence movement. By showing the different roles women played, she moves the battlefield to wherever women were forced to make choices and employ their talents. Elite, poor, Euro, Native, and African American women collide in Berkin's book, as do the rebels and loyalists who were once friends and neighbors. A valuable and readable book. -Elaine Crane, author of Ebb Tide in New England: Women, Seaports, and Social Change, 1630-1800
