Good Wives by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Good Wives

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

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · June 4, 1991

This enthralling work of scholarship strips away abstractions to reveal the hidden--and not always stoic--face of the "goodwives" of colonial America.

Buy on Amazon

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
Colonial domestic life comes into focus through the burdens, authority, and unruly details of women's lives.
Themes
Women’s domestic burdens and power, Colonial New England women’s lives, Marriage, childrearing, and loss
Genres
Colonial America (to 1775), Women's History, New England History

About this book

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.

Continue reading

We see her borrowing from her neighbors, loving her husband, raising--and, all too often, mourning--her children, and even attaining fame as a heroine of frontier conflicts or notoriety as a murderess. Painstakingly researched, lively with scandal and homely detail, Good Wives is history at its best.

Household Power

Colonial domestic life comes into focus through the burdens, authority, and unruly details of women's lives.

Come here for

  • The tension between household burdens and real authority
  • Scandal and homely detail in colonial New England

Expect

  • Lively scholarship rather than abstraction
  • Domestic lives, with occasional forays into the world of men

Where it sits

Colonial America (to 1775)67%
Women's History62%
New England History33%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Colonial America (to 1775)
  • Women's History
  • Women's Studies
Authors
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
June 4, 1991
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Women’s domestic burdens and power · Colonial New England women’s lives · Marriage, childrearing, and loss
Reading lane
Colonial America (to 1775)