To Be Useful to the World: Women in Revolutionary America, 1740-1790 - Softcover

Gundersen, Joan R.

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9780807856970: To Be Useful to the World: Women in Revolutionary America, 1740-1790
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0807856975 ISBN 13: 9780807856970
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006

Synopsis

Offering an interpretation of the Revolutionary period that places women at the center, Joan R. Gundersen provides a synthesis of the scholarship on women’s experiences during the era as well as a nuanced understanding that moves beyond a view of the war as either a “golden age” or a disaster for women. Gundersen argues that women’s lives varied greatly depending on race and class, but all women had to work within shifting parameters that enabled opportunities for some while constraining opportunities for others.

Three generations of women in three households personalize these changes: Elizabeth Dutoy Porter, member of the small-planter class whose Virginia household included an African American enslaved woman named Peg; Deborah Franklin, common-law wife of the prosperous revolutionary, Benjamin; and Margaret Brant, matriarch of a prominent Mohawk family who sided with the British during the war. This edition incorporates substantial revisions in the text and the notes to take into account the scholarship that has appeared since the book’s original publication in 1996.

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About the Author

Joan R. Gundersen is research scholar in women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh and professor emeritus of history at California State University, San Marcos. She is author or coauthor of four other books, including The Anglican Ministry in Virginia, 1723–1776: A Study of a Social Class.

From the Back Cover

This is the first paperback edition of a book that has become the reliable standard synthesis of scholarship on women's experiences during the Revolutionary era. Chapters have been revised to incorporate the work of 100 studies that have appeared since the original publication in 1996. Gundersen traces the lives of women in 3 households over 3 generations, including perspectives from Native American, wealthy white revolutionary, and middle-class plantation and slave households.

From the Inside Flap

This is the first paperback edition of a book that has become the reliable standard synthesis of scholarship on women's experiences during the Revolutionary era. Chapters have been revised to incorporate the work of 100 studies that have appeared since the original publication in 1996. Gundersen traces the lives of women in 3 households over 3 generations, including perspectives from Native American, wealthy white revolutionary, and middle-class plantation and slave households.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date
2006
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0807856975
ISBN 13 
9780807856970
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
344
Rating
  • 3.71 out of 5 stars
    31 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780805799163: To Be Useful to the World: Women in Revolutionary America, 1740-1790

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0805799168 ISBN 13:  9780805799163
Publisher: Twayne Publishers, 1996
Hardcover