Of the one hundred Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth in 1620; nearly half had died within months of hardship; starvation or disease. One of the colony's most urgent challenges was to find ways to grow and prepare food in the harsh; unfamiliar climate of the New World. From the meager subsistence of the earliest days and the crucial help provided by Native Americans; to the first Thanksgiving celebrations and the increasingly sophisticated fare served in inns and taverns; this book provides a window onto daily life in Colonial America. It shows how European methods and cuisine were adapted to include native agriculture such as maize; potatoes; beans; peanuts and tomatoes; and features a section of authentic menus and recipes; including apple tansey and crab soup; which can be used to prepare your own colonial meals.
#392320 in Books Polity 2001-12-21Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .78 x 6.04l; .78 #File Name: 0745617328240 pages
Review
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. brief overview of the fieldBy hmf22Colin Heywood's History of Childhood is a brief overview of the state of the field as of 2001. In under 200 pages; Heywood traces the origins of scholarly interest in the history of childhood; summarizes Philippe Aries's classic work and the major critiques of it; and outlines current thinking on several major topics; including infancy; early childhood; the "third stage" (from age 7 through adolescence); children's labor; and education. Heywood's treatment of each topic is inevitably very brief; and while he cites numerous primary sources; he sometimes uses them uncritically. I did not learn much history from this book; if you're looking for an engaging overview of childhood in early modern and modern times; I would recommend Steven Mintz's Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood or something similar. The merit of Heywood's History of Childhood lies in Heywood's extremely clear and succinct laying out of the major themes and research questions in the field. It would be useful to a graduate student preparing for comps or to someone who is just beginning a research project on some aspect of the history of childhood.4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Good; but plenty of other books are more helpfulBy DENThis book is a good general start for studying children's history. I would have to say that it doesn't really seem to present anything new to the field. There are definitely a lot of other great books on children's history; and the discipline is growing. One site I found (childhistory.org) has a pretty good list of a variety of books that deal with the history of children and childhood; all of which are linked here to . Anyway; I look forward to more scholarly interest in something so fundamental to our lives as childhood.
