Revolutionary Mothers, Carol Berkin
Revolutionary Mothers, Carol Berkin
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Revolutionary Mothers
Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

Author: Carol Berkin

Narrator: Donna Postel

Unabridged: 6 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/10/2018


Synopsis

The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle.

Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of extraordinary lives. We see women boycotting British goods in the years before independence, writing propaganda that radicalized their neighbors, raising funds for the army, and helping finance the fledgling government. We see how they managed farms, plantations, and businesses while their men went into battle, and how they served as nurses and cooks in the army camps, risked their lives seeking personal freedom from slavery, and served as spies, saboteurs, and warriors.

She introduces us to sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington, who sped through the night to rouse the militiamen needed to defend Danbury, Connecticut; to Phillis Wheatley, literary prodigy and Boston slave, who voiced the hopes of African Americans in poems; to Margaret Corbin, crippled for life when she took her husband's place beside a cannon at Fort Monmouth; to the women who gathered firewood, cooked, cleaned for the troops, nursed the wounded, and risked their lives carrying intelligence and participating in reconnaissance missions. Here, too, are Abigail Adams, Deborah Franklin, Lucy Knox, and Martha Washington, who lived with the daily knowledge that their husbands would be hanged as traitors if the revolution did not succeed.

About Carol Berkin

Carol Berkin is the author of numerous books, including Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, The History Handbook, and Civil War Wives. She is the Presidential Professor of History at Baruch College and a member of the history faculty of the Graduate Center of CUNY, Emerita, where she taught early American and women's history. She has worked as a consultant on several PBS and History Channel documentaries, including one on the "Scottsboro Boys," which was nominated for an Academy Award as the best documentary of 2000.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul on March 29, 2025

Revolutions are not made by men alone, as Carol Berkin makes clear in her book Revolutionary Mothers. This study of the American Revolution is distinctive in its focus on Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence. Berkin, a professor of American history at Baruch College, provides a thoughtfu......more

Goodreads review by Pamela on September 10, 2009

I'm giving this three stars to applaud Berkin for bringing these women and their stories to light. However, I wasn't thrilled by the presentation, There is a lot of room for bringing this exciting era and these women to life. Unfortunately, Berkin's prose and the organization of her material seems h......more

Goodreads review by William on April 03, 2022

Remember the ladies! Brava! Well-done! “Revolutionary Mothers” is a well-written, well-documented absorbing account of Revolutionary War women of all shapes, sizes, and sides (rebel, loyalist, British, Hessian, Indian, and slave). It is also well-proofed. In a casual read, I could find no typos, some......more

Goodreads review by Robert on October 23, 2015

This is a well-researched book that explores an oft-misunderstood aspect of the American Revolution: the role of women. It first covers pre-war norms, then looks at how the war affected women, and how women affected the war. It looks at various aspects of society, patriot and loyalist points of view......more

Goodreads review by Erin on June 26, 2017

At the end of the read, which I did for a class, I was very pleased, to the point that I wanted to write a review. I skimmed thru some other reviews...my mistake: 'it is too dry, too short, too oddly organized, didn't have enough this or that.' Hum. I suppose each review or critique has room for per......more