PART I: THE CONSTANT PATTERNS OF WOMEN'S LIVES 1. The Small Circle of Domestic Concerns 2. The Important Crisis upon Which Our Fate Depends 3. Fair Flowers, If Rightly Cultivated 4. In What Would You Shew Your Activity? 5. As Independent as Circumstances Will AdmitPART II: THE CHANGING PATTERNS OF WOMEN'S LIVES 6. We Commenced Perfect Statesmen 7. Necessity Taught Us 195 8. A Reverence of Self 9. Vindicating the Equality of Female IntellectConclusion: A New Era of Female History Abbreviations Appearing in the Sources and References Glossary of Major Families and Sources Essay on Sources Chapter References Index

[An] excellent book.... [Norton's] first concern... is to trace the decline of patriarchy; the growth of free choice of a spouse; the rise of marital equality... the greater equality in educational attainments; the more intense concern of parents for the proper education of children; the greater permissiveness in child-rearing; and the increased cooperation between spouses in birth control.... [Her] fascinating documentationdrawn from a vast range of manuscript sources, establishes the facts beyond any reasonable doubt.... Norton suggests that the change resulted from... two factors. The first was the practical experience of women during the long years of revolutionary upheaval.... The second... was the impact of egalitarian and republican ideology.