"A wonderfully original and courageous collection of essays, at once an incisive critique of feminist theoretical preoccupation with wealth and power and a compelling case for grounding domesticity more firmly in the eighteenth century. Arguing for a 'culturalist' approach, its attention to Anglo-American courtship, love, motherhood, virtue, and morality speaks as vividly to recent debates about the 'crisis of the family' as it does to historical intersections of gender, religion, and political and economic thought."--Carol Karlsen, author of The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England
"Ruth H. Bloch has long been known as one of our most acute historians of cultural life during the period of the American Revolution and Early Republic; moreover, she has a particularly strong reputation as an essayist. The gathering of the pieces included in this volume is, therefore, an occasion of special interest and appreciation. Gender, mentality, moral life in its various aspects: on these important subjects Professor Bloch has repeatedly thrown a fresh and altogether invaluable light."--John Demos, author of A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony
