Women in Early Modern England 1550-1720 [Hardcover]

Sara Mendelson (Author), Patricia Crawford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 1998

This is an original, accessible, and comprehensive survey of life as it was experienced by most Englishwomen during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The authors examine virtually all aspects of women's lives: female life-stages from birth to death; the separate culture of women, including female friendship and feminist consciousness; the diverse roles of women in the religious and political movements of the day; and the effect of prevailing perceptions of gender differences. Comparisons are made between the makeshift economy of poor women and the occupational identities, and preoccupations, of the middling and elite classes. This fascinating and well-illustrated book reconstructs the mental and material world of Tudor and Stuart women, and is sure to become the standard text on the subject.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`The book covers all aspects of women's lives, and women of all levels of wealth and status from monarchs down to vagrants, allowing the reader to develop a real sense of what being a woman in seventeenth-century England might have been like. Another strength is the amount of new research the two authors have incorporated in the book: this is not simply a distillation of existing research but a study from original sources. This is an important book which is sure to become influential in our understanding of women's history ... it contains much that is subtle, interesting, and innovative; it moves our understanding of women's lives forwards, providing a position from which to start new debates. This book should become the core text for all courses in early modern England and required reading for any student covering early modern England more generally.' Jane Whittle, University of Exeter.

`an excellent book and highly recommended.' Parergon 18.2

`Mendelson and Crawford have assembled a formidable array of materials which shed light on the hitherto somewhat obscure subject of Early Modern Women.' Parergon 18.2

`Mendelson and Crawford ... set new standards and reorient early modern women's history toward new goals. Mendelson and Crawford's methodology gives the book a credence almost unassailable.' Robert L Woods Jr, Jnl of Interdisciplinary History, Spring 00.

`Almost every page suggests heretofore overlooked relationships and unstudied connections.' Robert L Woods Jr, Jnl of Interdisciplinary History, Spring 00.

`This splendid book, well written with sparkling prose, shows how a methodology rigorously applied can destroy old presumptions - in this case, the professed lack of historical sources about early modern women's lives ... Mendelson and Crawford have achieved their ambitious aim and taught us much about the historian's craft.' Robert L Woods Jr, Jnl of Interdisciplinary History, Spring 00.

`Fifteen years in the making and a fully collaborative venture of the co-authors, Women in Early Modern England is a splendid new survey of the lives of early modern English women.' Mary S. Hartman, Journal of Social History

`It is the extraordinary achievement of Crawford and Mendelson to have demolished the arguments about lack of sources for the lives of early modern Englishwomen once and for all ... Mendelson and Crawford have set out to write a history of "women's experience". This vivid, highly readable book, the product of the two authors' research energies over the past twenty or so years, gives just that ... A major scholarly achievement, it provides a detailed account of the lives of English women which has the depth of local study, and which goes far beyond interpretation of gender ideology as it is found in advice books or prescriptive sources ... it is a tribute to this ground-breaking book that it contrives always to open up new questions for research while providing the most authoritative account we are likely to have of the lives of women in early modern England.' Lyndal Roper, Times Literary Supplement

`This is a thought-provoking study of the women of early modern England written by two proven experts in this relatively new field of modern inquiry. Mendelson's and Crawford's book is a tribute to the maturing of this field of inquiry that since the 1970's has developed significantly. They have invited their readers to join in a conversation with them about women's history.' Retha M. Warnicke, Albion

About the Author

Sara H. Mendelson is Assistant Professor of the Arts and Science Program at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Patricia Crawford works in the History Department at the University of Western Australia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 504 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198201249
• ISBN-13: 978-0198201243
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,472,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative, But Laden with Excessive Post-modern Jargon, October 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in Early Modern England 1550-1720 (Hardcover)

This book provides important insight into an insufficiently examined aspect of Tudor and Stuart history. The research is impressive, the chapter summaries most helpful. The illustrations are judiciously selected. Indeed, the book is undeniably informative and interesting.

However, I can't honestly say that this work constitutes what I would regard as a masterpiece of contemporary prose style, or even a brisk and refreshing "read". I found the feminist approach here a tad doctrinaire; perhaps this somewhat heavy-handed approach can be justified in the context of a thorough re-examination of the matter. Reservations still endure. At the risk of seeming intemperate, I call down a pox on all social- scientific newspeak. Yea, the devil seize all references to paradigms, discourses, modalities and any other such bits of post-modern scholarly vocabulary. I would be delighted if there were a moratorium on the use of such words in any academic writing for at least a generation!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, August 5, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Western Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women in Early Modern England 1550-1720 (Hardcover)

I have the privilege of being a pupil of Patricia Crawford's at the University of Western Australia, so naturally I was interested in reading the product of her colloboration. For a history student this book is marvellous for an introduction into the history of our female ancestors and a welcome relief from those dry products of academia which delight in annoying and perplexing the humble reader with page long sentences, words which I suspect the author has made up and long dry recitations of 'facts'. This is an easy to read and very informative piece of work, which I would highly reccommend for all who are interested in discovering a hidden voice of early modern history - the mighty female. And just in case you're thinking my review may be laced with bias, read this book and you will see that its not.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History at its best!, February 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in Early Modern England 1550-1720 (Hardcover)

This book is an exciting history of all aspects of the everyday lives of early modern Englishwomen. "Female culture" is my favorite chapter because it shows how resourceful women were, despite patriarchal constraints, in developing their own traditions and bonds of solidarity. The authors even discovered a marriage between two women!