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__karen__'s review
5.0
Interesting read about women's role in day to day life over history. I found volume II more interesting than volume I because it's an era I'm more familiar with. Nonetheless, an interesting series and worth reading for the detail about women's history that generally isn't included in school history books.
thecolourblue's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
French's Eve to Dawn series is impressive purely by the fact of its scope. There might be better books about gender and specific periods of history out there, but French's epic and global scale are impressive, even if it leads to drawing some conclusions across cultural lines or from ancient times that might not stand up to closer scrutiny or erase the nuance of a closer lens.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
3.0
3.5
While I found this volume to be just as rewarding to read as the first, I had some problems. They are listed below.
1. I don't understand the implication that King Phillip's War has the highest death total on American soil. The Civil War had more dead. I will admit that one can advocate that the effects, especially in terms of Native American population, were more far reaching. This section could have been a little clearer about what terms French was using in talking about the war.
2. The section on North America is confined largely to the US, both pre and post independence. There are two sentences about Canada in particular. I learned more about women in Canada by reading about and going to Notre Dame de Bon Secour in Montreal. It is just as interesting and important as US women's history.
3. Slave women and Native American women do not tempt to escape their white captors in great numbers because they do not leave their children. White women, however, who are captured or taken by Native Americans, do not wish to leave because they might enjoy the sexual freedom. So they want to leave children? I'm sorry I don't buy that, especially the two stories that French tells us. Perhaps, the women were also frightened of being branded whores. By simply tying it to freedom to love, French unintentionally backs up the then current (and still currently held by some) that women were uncontrolled messes when it came to desires.
4. French implies that there was no rape in Native American cultures. (She says there was not a word for it). I'm sorry. I can't buy the implication, have you read any folklore?)
Still worth reading because of the amount of detail in terms of Central and South America as well as how male and female slaves everywhere were treated differently.
While I found this volume to be just as rewarding to read as the first, I had some problems. They are listed below.
1. I don't understand the implication that King Phillip's War has the highest death total on American soil. The Civil War had more dead. I will admit that one can advocate that the effects, especially in terms of Native American population, were more far reaching. This section could have been a little clearer about what terms French was using in talking about the war.
2. The section on North America is confined largely to the US, both pre and post independence. There are two sentences about Canada in particular. I learned more about women in Canada by reading about and going to Notre Dame de Bon Secour in Montreal. It is just as interesting and important as US women's history.
3. Slave women and Native American women do not tempt to escape their white captors in great numbers because they do not leave their children. White women, however, who are captured or taken by Native Americans, do not wish to leave because they might enjoy the sexual freedom. So they want to leave children? I'm sorry I don't buy that, especially the two stories that French tells us. Perhaps, the women were also frightened of being branded whores. By simply tying it to freedom to love, French unintentionally backs up the then current (and still currently held by some) that women were uncontrolled messes when it came to desires.
4. French implies that there was no rape in Native American cultures. (She says there was not a word for it). I'm sorry. I can't buy the implication, have you read any folklore?)
Still worth reading because of the amount of detail in terms of Central and South America as well as how male and female slaves everywhere were treated differently.
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