ePub First Generations: Women in Colonial America by Carol Berkin in History

Review

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful. Excellent Women's HistoryBy J. MeeganSo many history books are dry and difficult to read. This was the exact opposite. Carol Berkin breathes life into the dim periods of early Colonial American history. Although she often has little more details than land records; birth; marriage; and death dates (and in some cases; not even that) Berkin is able to paint a vivid picture of what it might have been like for the strong women who; willingly or not; helped to create America. Berkin is an equal opportunity historian -- each chapter of her book focuses on a particular strata of female colonial society: Native America women; African American women; poor white immigrant women; and wealthy women. In this way; the reader gets a full picture of the diverse cultural groups that existed from the earliest days of Colonial America. There are also some real surprises (I wont spoil them for you) which leads the reader to believe that life in Colonial America was much more complex and unpredictable than you might have thought. This book was both educational and entertaining and I highly recommend it.5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Interesting information; narrowly focused textBy flyingleapsThis book was a required text for a course at my University on the social history of American women. While the information contained in this book was interesting (there isn't a lot out there about women during the Colonial period; though there is plenty about men); it was very narrowly focused. A significant portion of the book talks about the women of the Chesapeake; which is interesting; but not as comprehensive as I would have liked. I understand that this is because more information survives about women of that area; but it still felt like that should have been taken into account in the title of the book; so readers would have a better idea of what they were getting.I did enjoy the discussion of Native American women included in the text; though some passages felt dismissive of the culture and quickly returned to white women. The Native Americans seemed included only as far as they contextualized the lives of whites.All in all; it was an interesting book with good information; though the tone and density of the text was sometimes difficult to slog through. I found myself skimming and skipping pages oftener than I did other texts on the same subject.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Four StarsBy JeffHad to get it for US History class. Its an interesting read.