First Generations: Women in Colonial America 1st Edition

by Carol Berkin (Author)

14 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0809016068

ISBN-10: 0809045613

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Indian, European, and African women of seventeenth and eighteenth-century America were defenders of their native land, pioneers on the frontier, willing immigrants, and courageous slaves. They were also - as traditional scholarship tends to omit - as important as men in shaping American culture and history. This remarkable work is a gripping portrait that gives early-American women their proper place in history.

First Generations: Women in Colonial America

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Product Details

Hardcover: 234 pages
Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1 edition (September 30, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0809045613
ISBN-13: 978-0809016068
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1738 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Colonial Period
- #2035 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Feminist Theory
- #2593 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Gender Studies

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Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars

5 star		57%
4 star		22%
3 star		7%
2 star		7%
1 star		7%

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Top Customer Reviews

Excellent Women's History

By J. Meegan VINE VOICE on August 21, 2000

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

So 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.

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Excellent Study, Encompassing Many Regions, Groups

By Brian O'Malley on March 23, 2000

Format: Paperback

Carol Berkin offers informative essays on women in different ethnic and regional cultures of colonial America. The life story of a woman from each of the groups considered lends character and definition to this excellent scholarly work. African-American women, Native American women, and Anglo-American women in New England and the Chesapeake are among those considered. As New Amsterdam became New York, women of Dutch descent experienced major changes in their legal rights. Berkin's treatment of this transition from Dutch to English law exemplifies her fascinating and informative style.
The study ends with a discussion of women's lives during the American Revolution, including the moving stories of women who lost their fortunes or their lives in that struggle. The biographies of martyrs, however, do not eclipse a good discussion of the everyday lives of women during the conflict. Berkin also examines how the logic of democratic revolution, strangely, did not extend to women's rights.
Berkin has made an indispensable contribution to colonial history, women's history and ethnic history.

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Interesting information; narrowly focused text

By C. Ellwood on July 14, 2012

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

This 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.

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Great quality

By Kida on February 2, 2014

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Although I wish the book had come in sooner, that's just something that I can't complain because it's out of my control, but when the book did come in, I was delighted to see what great condition it was in! Absolutely perfect and brand new! Thank you for packaging the book so nicely.