Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "A woman is like a tea bag: You can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water." Carol Berkin's Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence explores the very idea of ​​women's strength revealing itself during trials. Berkin begins the book by giving the reader a brief overview of a typical woman's life before the Revolutionary War. Note the lack of information in the general history regarding the role of women in several historical events, especially the Revolutionary War. Terming this concept as “gender amnesia,” Berkin explains how generally “the war for independence is portrayed as an exclusively male event” and how this has altered modern thinking about history. Throughout the book, she uses short character sketches to illustrate the different perspectives of women in that time period, grouping them by race, social status, and economic class. Ultimately, she ties all the stories together with a final chapter that discusses how all the women, regardless of their perspective, experienced a change in their definition of “normal life” after the war. While there are some flaws in this book, overall it makes for a good essential read for anyone interested in women's history, particularly during America's early years. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To explain a general lack of knowledge about women's roles in early America — or as Berkin calls it, "gender amnesia" — Berkin's introduction and first chapter provides the reader with vital information about women before and during the Revolutionary War. By dispelling some popular myths, it sets a clean slate to eliminate prejudices and preconceived notions. For example, she notes, "Only three women seem to be easily associated with the War for Independence," and one of them, Molly Pitcher, "simply did not exist," but instead symbolized the many unknown women who played a role in the revolution. . Berkin challenges traditional stereotypes to open the reader's mind to his work, an especially important step considering the foundational nature of the book. For example, he introduces the widely known idea of ​​the woman as her husband's companion, but concludes the first chapter by challenging the traditional definition. She states, “When wives stepped into their husbands' shoes, carrying out men's tasks... however radical their actions, these women fulfilled their obligations as companions.” By introducing this idea of ​​a change in the definition of “helper” at the beginning of the book, she allows the reader to meditate on how women's traditional roles have changed and stayed the same as different women's stories unfold. After the first chapter, Berkin systematically works her way through a number of different groups of women and describes their duties and feelings before, during, and after the war. An overarching theme is that every group, regardless of differences, faced challenges and hardships during the war. Categorizing women of the time into different racial groups, she notes that each group overcame different obstacles. The lives of Native American women changed when settlers “imposed their gender roles on the Indians who remained within their borders” and thus limited the amount of influence they had even within their own tribes. On the other hand, African American women initially seemed to find a glimmer of hope in the war; however, it often did not produce any actual freedom. The English offered freedom to a numberof slaves owned by the patriots if they joined the army, but the English often did not keep their promises. Female slaves faced a unique situation, as they often faced the difficult decision of whether or not to leave due to their children's dependence on them. Whether they stayed or fled, they rarely found relief from the rigors of slavery and even more rarely true freedom. Berkin notes, “In the end, there would be no winning side for…the many nameless African-American women who died of starvation and enemy attacks. Many African American women who gained freedom lost it again….” In addition to race, Berkin distinguishes experience between settlers of different social status. While one might assume that those with higher social status faced fewer problems than those with lower social status, Berkin disputes this claim by providing examples of elite women such as Caty Greene and Frederika Charlotte Louise von Massow who moved to all my life because of the war. By grouping women by race, social status, and even by side in the war, Berkin seems to cover all his bases. However, as Martha Saxton notes, Berkin leaves out a “central ingredient in the mixed legacy of the Revolution: religion.” Because religion had such an influence on every aspect of most colonists' lives, women responded differently both during and after the war due to their beliefs. By omitting this, Berkin misses an important opportunity to distinguish the reactions of different groups of people. While this oversight could lead to questions about Berkin's reliability, his background firmly establishes his credibility on the subject. Berkin currently serves as Presidential Professor of History, Emerita at Baruch College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, a title awarded only to individuals who publish outstanding research and demonstrate extraordinary expertise in their fields. He wrote numerous other books on early America and also received a Bancroft Dissertation Award from Columbia University for his work in pursuing his doctorate. Although Berkin possesses extensive high-level academic knowledge about early America, he chooses to keep it more basic Revolutionary Mothers. Overall, the book offers a masterful overview of the different ways women contributed to Revolutionary War efforts. As Susan Klepp observed in Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, “Revolutionary Mothers is an easy read, a good, quick introduction to some of the prominent American and British women activists, writers, and patriots of the late eighteenth century.” . Instead of using all the relatively obscure examples, such as the unnamed girls who "chewed and swallowed documents rather than have the enemy discover them", Berkin also includes stories about many famous women. Showing how even notable women faced disruptions in their daily lives, it tells how Martha Washington followed George Washington to Valley Forge and served soldiers through freezing winters before having to return home due to illness. Mixing familiar and obscure examples, Berkin argues unarguably that the social effects of the Revolutionary War reached all women, regardless of class, and appeal even to those with less general knowledge of specific figures in American history. However, the choice to include a number of familiar examples has resulted in mixed reviews. Some, like Susan Klepp, argue that Berkin “draws primarily from standard secondary literature” and therefore most historians who have read other books.”