Released 2006.02.14 | Finished 2024.06.06 | Purchased
Note: A number of lectures are available on YouTube regarding this book, one hosted by American Revolution Institute dated January 7, 2016
As Dr. Berkin points out in one of the YouTube discussions of this book, women were not merely observers of the American Revolution. They did not sit on the sideline like at a football game and cheer on the participants or specific plays/actions within the battles. Whether a camp follower or the female at the home/business front regardless of her race or social standing, women were participants.
Dr. Berkin looked at the women on the North American continent as they were involved and how they were treated in the Revolution. Patriots vs Loyalists; well-to-do vs poor; White vs Indian vs Black.
Women were in contact with both sides of the conflict. If she had stayed on the farm regardless of her success in maintaining the acres, troops came through like locusts taking what they could use. If the woman was lucky, raiding the larder was the only crime against her. Some of these ladies would destroy their work rather than have it stolen. Camp followers of both sides included colonial women in multiple capacities and for protection. Some found themselves taking water on the battleground as refreshment for men or cooling cannon.
Dr. Berkin’s examples of the situations women were varied and not the ones usually cited in history books written by men. She examined archives for information that was designated as ‘other’ to find information left by women. She also examined oral histories that were generally designated to the outer boundaries of history.
Recommendation: Excellent for women’s studies classes (at least they were called that 20 years ago) and for background/groundwork in American history. The book is finding an audience as the nation nears its 250th anniversary.
About the Author
Carol Ruth Berkin was born in Mobile, Alabama on October 1, 1942. The mother of two, Berkin earned her undergraduate work at Barnard College (1964) and her Ph.D. from Columbia. American historian and writer, she is currently the Baruch Presidential Professor of History, City University of New York (en.wikipedia.org). Dr. Berkin has also consulted on several PBS and History Channel documentaries and is board members of the National Council for History Education and The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (www.Amazon.com).
Her published work includes:
Clio in the Classroom: Teaching Women’s History (ed. with Margaret Crocco and Barbara Winslow) pub. 2009.02.02
Civil War Wives pub 2010.11.15
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independence pub 2005.02.01
Looking Forward/Looking Back: a Women’s Studies Reader (ed. with Carole Appel and Judith Pinch) pub 2005.05.27
A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution pub 2002.09.13
Women’s Voices/Women’s Lives: Documents in Early American Women’s History pub 1998.05.07
First Generations: Women In Colonial America pub 1997.07.01
Making America: A History of the U.S. (with Christopher Miller, Robert Cherny, and James Gormly) pub 2011.07.27
Women, War and Revolution (ed. With Clara Lovett and Holmes Meier) pub 1980.01.01
Women of America: A History (ed. With Mary Beth Norton) pub 1979.01.01
Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist pub. 2000.01.01
Wondrous Beauty: Betsy Bonaparte, the Belle of Baltimore who Married Napoleon’s Brother pub 2014.11.04
Another Arm Chair Opinion 