A Midwife's Tale

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Winner of the Bancroft Prize
Winner of the Joan Kelly and John H. Dunning Prizes of the American Historical Association
Winner of the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women Book Prize

Drawing on the diaries of Martha Ballard, a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this rare and evocative history brings us closer than we have yet been to the texture of ordinary life in preindustrial America. Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of Martha Ballard, but of her society--a portrait that sheds light on its medical practices, religious squabbles, and sexual mores.

"A major source through which we can vicariously experience the rural life of early New England."
—Carl N. Degler, The New York Times Book Review

“Expertly executed and endlessly interesting. [An] offbeat gem of scholarship.” —Washington Post Book World

“A marvelously nuanced, subtle, and unillusioned portrayal of one woman’s life in early America. It has the makings of a classic.” — Stephen Innes, University of Virginia

“It [takes] a historian of extraordinary persistence, skill, and empathy to recognize [Martha Ballard’s] diary as something of a buried treasure and to painstakingly unearth its gems. . . . Ulrich has recognized Ballard’s great spirit, and has given to us the gift of a life worth knowing.” — Philadelphia Inquirer