Book Review On Revolutionary Mothers History Assignment

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Book Review on Revolutionary Mothers
Introduction
The Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the struggle for America’s Independence as written by Carol Berkin is founded on the proposition that the Revolutionary War helped create great leaders both women and men. The author illustrates how women played an active role in the war despite the minimal or the omission of this role in history. In line with this, the author offers immensurable evidence to support her assertion that women played a crucial role in the revolution. This is achieved by providing the reader with a social history which primarily focuses on women during the revolution. Included in the discussions are women from different classes including Native Americans, white colonial women, and African Americans. She focuses on different social classes in addition to women who campaigned for loyalist and patriot causes during the war. More specifically, the author offers an account that tells realistic stories of how women from different classes and ethnic backgrounds were involved or were affected by the war without romanticizing their roles. This book review evaluates Berkin works and how it affects the reader.
Overview
Berkin organizes her book in topical fashion which helps facilitates the accomplishment of her goal in relation to explaining the effect of women on the results of the Revolutionary War. According to the author’s viewpoint, while women did not enjoy equality and individual rights as compared with contemporary period, they still enjoyed diversity as a result of the hierarchical social system that existed in the 1700s. The author begins with an introduction which explicates her thesis and purpose of the book. In this context, the author explains that her intention was to bring to light the crucial role that women played during the Revolution War and to nullify the idea that the war was harmless and old-fashioned (p. ix). On the contrary, the author argues that the war was brutal that left many dead or disabled. The author points towards the numerous atrocities committed against women and the plight of neighbors during the war.
In Chapter 1, Berkin focuses on women during colonial time and how their focus was on their families and households. The author argues that education and other intellectual issues during 1600s and 1700s were left to men and women had no or few legal rights and were highly dependent on their husbands or that of a male figure in the family in case one was not married. This however changed in mid-1700s as women started to accumulate wealth and employ servants to complete household chores. This allowed women to assume the role of charming ladies (p.8) which called on them to be the best companions to their men and to do everything in their power to please them. In Chapter 2, the author focuses the growth of women’s political power. While women still lacked a political voice, they were able to say no to British policies and engage in boycotts (p. 13). Starting then, some women activists established manifestos touching on issues which they thought touched on their daily lives. For example, women were adamant on refusing to use British tea. The ...