A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.\ \ \ On the basis of a diary, Ulrich gives the reader an intimate and densely imagined portrait of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard and her society--a portrait that sheds light on its medical practices, religious squabbles and sexual mores....
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Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier. Publishers Weekly The diary of a midwife and herbalist reveals the prevalence of violence, crime and premarital sex in rural 18th-century New England. ``Fleshing out this midwife's bare entries with interpretive essays . . . Ulrich marvelously illuminates women's status, the history of medicine and daily life in the early Republic,'' said PW . Illustrated. (June)
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ The diary of a midwife and herbalist reveals the prevalence of violence, crime and premarital sex in rural 18th-century New England. ``Fleshing out this midwife's bare entries with interpretive essays . . . Ulrich marvelously illuminates women's status, the history of medicine and daily life in the early Republic,'' said PW . Illustrated. June\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalThis book is a model of social history at its best. An exegesis of Ballard's diary, it recounts the life and times of this obscure Maine housewife and midwife. Using passages from the diary as a starting point for each chapter division, Ulrich, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, demonstrates how the seemingly trivial details of Ballard's daily life reflect and relate to prominent themes in the history of the early republic: the role of women in the economic life of the community, the nature of marriage and sexual relations, the scope of medical knowledge and practice. Speculating on why Ballard kept the diary as well as why her family saved it, Ulrich highlights the document's usefulness for historians.-- Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., N.J.\ \
