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September’s Selection: A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

In September’s selection, we shift from the grand sweep of revolutionary politics to the intimate rhythms of everyday life in the early American republic. A Midwife’s Tale tells the true story of Martha Ballard, the eighteenth-century midwife whose diary also inspired the novel The Frozen River, which our book club read in March. Through Ballard’s remarkable journal, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich reconstructs a richly detailed portrait of a New England community, revealing how ordinary people navigated birth, illness, work, family and justice. By illuminating the experiences of women whose contributions often went unrecorded in traditional histories, this Pulitzer Prize-winning work invites readers to see the nation’s founding era not only through famous leaders and historic events, but through the lives of the people who sustained their communities every day.

Excerpts from Ken Burns’ THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION will be shown in the book discussion group. These clips have been made possible through a library grant from PBS.