Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society

By Mary Beth Norton

Book Overview

In this pioneering study of the ways in which the first settlers defined the power, prerogatives, and responsibilities of the sexes, one of our most incisive historians opens a window onto the world of Colonial America. Drawing on a wealth of contemporary documents, Mary Beth Norton tells the story of the Pinion clan, whose two-generation record of theft, adultery, and infanticide may have made them our first dysfunctional family. She reopens the case of Mistress Ann Hibbens, whose church excommunicated her for arguing that God had told husbands to listen to their wives. And here is the enigma of Thomas, or Thomasine Hall, who lived comfortably as both a man and a woman in 17th century Virginia. Wonderfully erudite and vastly readable, Founding Mothers & Fathers reveals both the philosophical assumptions and intimate domestic arrangements of our colonial ancestors in all their rigor, strangeness, and unruly passion. "An important, imaginative book. Norton destroys our nostalgic image of a 'golden age' of family life and re-creates a more complex past whose assumptions and anxieties are still with us."--Raleigh News and Observer

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679749772
• ISBN13: 9780679749776
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Mary Beth Does Again!

Cornell University professor Mary Beth Norton has once again turned the world of colonial American history scholarship on its head with her incisive review of gendered power structures in the 17th century mainland English colonies. For the first time she exposes the world to Filmerian thought and its implications for women (and men!) in society, both in New England and the Chesapeake. The book is dense, and at times boring and repetitive, but freshly informative too. Multiple stories about sex, sexual deviancy and scandal lighten up otherwise dry scholarly analysis. This is a valuable addition to the literature of colonial American history which has ignored feminist analysis for so long. She's a tough grader, but also a great scholar and a fabulous teacher. Even a dead white male worshipper like me can enjoy and learn from her brilliance! Good luck on your next project Mary Beth, I eagerly await it.