Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

Inspiring. Engaging. Invaluable. Wonderfully researched. Artfully told. Now I want to research many of these women and read about each of them more in depth.

Well written and a real eye opener because it approaches the war with the aspect of women playing a significant role in our advancement towards independence.

This book explores women who influenced and were influenced by the Revolutionary War. The author introduces us to the many brave and noble women of all classes and races who fearless served their cause, whether loyalist or patriot. My eyes were opened to many nuances of our war for independence that I never thought about or even knew. This book is well written and easy to read. You can probably read it in a few short sessions. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in the Revolutionary War or in women's history.

This is the second book I've read by Carol Berkin ("Brilliant Solution"), and the pattern that emerges in those two is that she isn't unnecessarily long-winded and her writing is very easy to follow. "Revolutionary Mothers" isn't a 5-star book because it's a brief survey of the topic that breaks no new ground. But it's a book that can be read in a couple of days, and because of how well it's organized, you'll have a strong understanding of the various roles women played during the American Revolution.Berkin provides nice background to gender roles and expectations prior to the conflict with Britain, and then she discusses the stories of women living in the colonies during the war -- housewives, loyalists, spies, African-Americans, native Americans, etc. It's clear from the length of the book and the amount of context she provides that primary-source materials from women of that era are not readily available. In fact, the chapter on African-American women is almost entirely context, but then, slave women in the 1770s weren't keeping diaries or writing letters.This book included some stuff I knew and plenty that I didn't know about women during the Revolutionary period and put all of it in one easy-to-read place, compiled by a respected historian. It would appeal to almost anyone with any interest in history. Highly recommended.

I totally enjoyed this book. The final chapters tied together the struggles that women of color and all women faced during and after the war. I particularly liked the final chapter, which to me, brought the sacrifices experienced during the war, hopefulness of women for greater freedom, changes in attitudes and responsibilities, to realization that those who had power would hold onto that dearly. Women, people of color, and children despite their contributions during the war certainly did not reap larger freedoms, security, and responsibilities in the civic world after the war. The war for equality of the sexes and for people of color would continue.

This book provides an nice comprehensive look at women's roles during the revolutionary war and colonial times. After an overview the author examines a different type or woman in the succeeding chapters: women left at home, camp followers, loyalist wives, General's wives, native American women and African American women. It ends with a discussion of if, and how women's roles changed. Amazingly that got narrower: tending the home and raising good patriot sons became the role of women.

This book lays out the role of women and African Americans in colonial times and their participation early in the birth of this nation Never underestimate what we can do now and what we did then. History books don't always portray all of history. This book is a true representation of the "unwritten" history that is a must learn.n.

Revolutionary Mothers is an overview of the role women played in the revolutionary war. Since it was a home front war, American women were very close with the events. Among other roles, some acted as spies or messengers, organized funds for the troops, took care of homes and businesses while the men were away, or were actively involved in battles.Revolutionary Mothers is a short, fairly general overview of the topic at hand. I think it is most suitable as supplemental material for a history course or as an introduction to the topic. I would have appreciated more depth to some sections, but perhaps the material was too scarce for this to be possible.Because of this, the book does not have much of a narrative structure and I found it hard to retain interest while reading. That being said, Berkin’s prose is easy to grasp. She never ventures into the territory of academic jargon.Of all the chapters, I found the one on Native American women to be the most enthralling. The material Berkin presents was entirely new to me, and I had never seen it covered in any of the numerous United States history courses I’ve taken over the years.I would recommend Revolutionary Mothers for people looking to learn about women’s role in the Revolutionary war and how the war impacted women.