Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750

by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Book Overview

This enthralling work of scholarship strips away abstractions to reveal the hidden--and not always stoic--face of the goodwives of colonial America. In these pages we encounter the awesome burdens--and the considerable power--of a New England housewife's domestic life and witness her occasional forays into the world of men. We see her borrowing from her neighbors, loving her husband, raising--and, all too often, mourning--her children, and even attaining...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679732578
• ISBN13: 9780679732570
• Release Date: June 1991
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Splendid Books Rock

I am a passionate fan of A Midwife's Tale, and so expected to enjoy Good Wives. It is different, but nevertheless, an incredibly valuable resource. I read with amusement the one-star review from the student who'd been compelled to read this for a college course and thought..."Gosh, he COULDN'T have read this book! He must be confusing the title!" It is crammed with interesting, offbeat, entertaining, and poignant glimpses into colonial American life. Perhaps I enjoy Ulrich's books so much because I live in a northeastern hamlet next to a 350-year-old village and run into history on my way to the grocery store (or local farm) to pick up eggs. If I haven't convinced you to give this a try, let me just throw in that this is quite a sexy little book, for the Puritans and colonials, contrary to folklore, were very susceptible to Eros. It's also a book one can pick up, read a bit, then take up later with no difficulty. If you enjoy history, particularly the Princeton "common man" school and not just kings and queens...you'll have a wonderful time with Good Wives.

"Pots and pans" history

"Pots and pans" history. So that's what this stuff is called. If that is supposed to diminish it, allow me to suggest that nothing could be further from the truth.Nothing is more controversial in our society today than "woman's place," and no where is it more controversial than among women. (Any email list will bear this out.)But what was it like for the women who were the founders of this country? How often do we even think about how they lived, unless we happen to visit one of the burgeoning historical communities multiplying across the country?It was work, and it was hard work. Women were at home, and they were at home for a reason. Even getting to church was a major endeavor, and one they fought for, for it was women who built many of the major American congregations thriving today.Their relationships with each other sustained them, and also were likely to pose the most threat, for women could make or break the reputations of one another, upon which survival depended.Childbirth, pre, post and in between, determined the rhythm of life for generations of women. There were many births, and many of them did not live to adulthood. A woman who was able to nurture many children to see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren had accomplished a great deal, and was honored accordingly.They had to know and understand the rhythms of nature and the timing of how to use an oven they could stand in and work with its heat as it coursed over the length of a day. There were no timers. There were no temperature regulators. There certainly were no microwave ovens or dish washers or washing machines.They made medical tinctures as well as food, for doctors were few and far between and if they couldn't nurse their loved ones to health, they lost them more often than not.They acted as "Deputy Husbands," representing their husbands in their livelihood, not in their own right, but as stand-ins based on the status of their husbands. It was power, even if not their own.Well researched, thoroughly documented, well written and a very pleasant read, this book will allow us all to count our blessings -- and honor our foremothers....geminiwalker

Required reading for anyone interested in American history

How can any history can be written as though 50% of the population doesn't exist? This book gives a clear idea of what that other 50% was doing while the others were becoming "historic". It becomes clear that these women were not cut from a cookie-cutter, and their position in society was not so stagnant or ineffectual as modern Americans like to believe.