Other reviews of The First Woman in the Republic: "Lydia Maria Child's rich and expansive life has finally been accorded the voluminous treatment it deserves."-American Historical Review
"By probing Child's literary innovations, her radical social vision and activism, and the response of the intellectual and political world of nineteenth-century New England to her activity, Karcher adds a vital dimension to scholarship of this period. . . . Karcher's recreation of the rich cultural milieu of Child's era is sure-footed and copious. . . . Karcher makes a powerful case for the resurrection of interest in Child."-Boston Book Review
"Karcher details Child's life in a thoroughly researched manner that emphasizes Child's own writings."-Library Journal
"Karcher has prodigiously researched nineteenth-century life in America to place her subject in historical context for this definitive biography."-Publishers Weekly
"Karcher's study represents a significant scholarly achievement. It not only offers a complex and sophisticated portrayal of a woman struggling to contend with 'an unsatisfying marriage, unfulfilled sexual desires, domestic drudgery, and thwarted professional ambitions' and a reformer whose life's work was devoted to the drive for equality in all spheres, but also suggests new ways of examining American society's most tumultuous period of growth and change."-Journal of American Studies
"Weaving together textual analysis and biographical narrative, Karcher maps the relationship between Child's professional and personal lives, her marriage and her career. Simultaneously, she offers us a lens through which we can glimpse a rapidly changing nation. . . ."-Journal of American History
"As biography, Karcher's work extends the genre admirably to place a life in its historical and literary contexts. Her consistent sensitivity to matters of gender underlies the necessity of applying a feminist analysis to a writer like Child."-The New England Quarterly
"In what will be the definitive biography for years to come, Carolyn Karcher has written an exhaustive study of a formidable nineteenth century figure."-Magill's Literary Annual
"Much of Karcher's success in portraying Child's character comes from giving serious attention to Child's total output rather than concentrating narrowly on her better known antislavery work and her descriptions of urban life. . . . Taken altogether, Karcher gives us a Child that earlier biographers only skimmed because they failed to interweave the writer with the reformer."-Reviews in American History
"Where Karcher scores, as her subtitle indicates, is as a cultural biographer. . . . The biography benefits from archival materials, an extensive knowledge of the literature of anti-slavery, Reconstruction, and Indian removal, and a broad knowledge of American politics and literature to boot. . . . The chapters on children's literature and anti-slavery, The National Anti-Slavery Standard, John Brown, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, are particularly impressive. Karcher's literary judgements are also often acute. She brings out Child's supreme grasp of literary strategy, her sharp powers of persuasion, and her accurate sense of her audience."-Slavery and Abolition
"[O]ne of the strengths of this extremely detailed, well-researched, and . . . thought-provoking biography is the way in which the author delineates the interrelationships between Child's varied causes. . . . The First Woman in the Republic will undoubtedly become the definitive biography of Child."-The Historical Association
"Perhaps Karcher's most important contribution is her prodigious research-other scholars now have an understanding of the depth and volume of Child's writing. Each of Lydia Maria Child's causes-Indian removal, women's rights, abolition, and even respect for the elderly-is deserving of further analysis. Taken together, they reveal Child, and Karcher, to be tireless, insightful, and forward-thinking."-American Studies International
"One only has to read this cultural biography . . . to appreciate how appropriate Karcher's conscientious recordings of Child's life and work actually are. . . . Works such as Karcher's offer an invaluable service to scholars, teachers, and students interested in broadening their understanding of American literature and culture and the significant role that women played in developing these arenas. . . . The First Woman in the Republic is a book that has much to offer and much to teach, not only about a major literary figure, but about the culture in which she lived and wrote. . . . Karcher's biography compels one to give Child another look, to acknowledge her status as a major American writer, and to factor her in when creating the next syllabus for a nineteenth-century American literature class."-American Quarterly
"For the first time historians and literary scholars have a full biography of Lydia Maria Child that includes discussion and explication of her voluminous writings. . . . Karcher is especially thorough in showing the interrelationships among Child's causes."-Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
"Carolyn Karcher is to be commended for the overall fine quality of her research and writing. She demonstrates an impressive command of primary and secondary literature and does a thorough job reviewing and analyzing al of Child's important works, a challenging proposition given their number, length, and variety. She does an equally fine job placing this remarkable woman in the context of her era. . . . [A]fter reading this book, one cannot help but share Karcher's belief that Child is 'an exceptionally rewarding subject.'"-Biography
"[T]his is an impressive and scholarly biography, an important work for students of nineteenth-century American literature and culture and especially of American women's place in literary history and in the history of political and social activism."-Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
"Lydia Maria Child was a remarkable woman, and Carolyn Karcher's full account of her life, her society, her writings, and actions to change the ills of society is an extraordinary book. . . . [I]n Karcher's biography Child's life, writings, and social and political activities have received their fullest, most interesting scholarly account."-Science and Society
"Karcher [has] extraordinary skills as both historian and literary critic."-Race Traitor
