Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83695 in Books
• Published on: 1991-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Synopsis
Presents the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife in Maine during the eighteenth century, by drawing on the detailed diary she kept for twenty-seven years of her life.

Customer Reviews

a moving account of a woman's life
Ulrich's book is a moving account in an underexplored area of American History--the lives and economies of early American women. This book is a double triumph--Martha Ballard kept a detailed diary for almost three decades and Ulrich rescued the dairy from oblivion to create a luminous work of scholarship. This book was moving and engaging beyond almost any work of history I have ever read. Nothing else I have ever read has given me a better feeling of what it would be like to live as a woman in those days. What a triumph!

A Fantasitc Book!!
I read this book when it was first published and it didn't surprise me that it won a Pulitzer's Prize. It's one of the best biographies I've ever read, and since I'm a history buff, that made it all the more special. I've read and re-read it so many times that it's falling apart (and it's a hardback copy!). I'll be buying a new one and probably one for my mother, too, since she's the one who lent it to me (and then I wouldn't give it back). For anyone who's interested in what women were like at the end of the eighteenth century and the roles they filled at home and in the community--this book fills the bill. Thank you, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, for putting Martha Ballard's journal writings into perspective for women of the 1990's. I didn't want the story to end.

Historically interesting.
Perusing a personal diary (portions of the diary are included in the book) which contain sentence fragments and short descriptions of the day's activity, Laurel Ulrich's book, "A Midwife's Tale: The Diary of Martha Ballard," is a fascinating reconstruction in the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife who, during the Revolutionary War, is characterized as a feminist in her own right. By choice, many women left their homes to join their husbands to help fight the war; others were driven away by Brittish soldiers; but Martha Ballard, unaffected by the War and American Politics, resided at home with her husband, family, and friends. Incredibly, Ulrich writes in narrative style that Martha Ballard had performed in 27 years more than 800 deliveries in and around Hallowell, Maine, produced and distributed drugs, prepared burials and dissections, at a time when medicine was in its infancy. This is a true story of a woman who had been independent, strong, and productive throughout her life. In the environment surrounding Martha's world, "A Midwife's Tale" also portrays a 'women's community' that characterizes an almost perfect social and economic ideal of their time. The winner of numerous prizes, historians, history enthusiasts, and feminists will find this 352 page book (not including endnotes and index) a wonderful and interesting read.