The Prospect Before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe, 1500-1800

This is a very down-to-earth collection of studies that convey the state of women's lives in a grinding age of uphill struggle. The accounts start in a setting of religious war, famine, plague, witch hunts, and economic upheavals that make the 1930s Great Depression look gentle. We are introduced to real women from these centuries telling their stories with candor. There are thread-spinning "spinsters" who lose their jobs en masse, Catholic nuns breaking out of cloisters for vocations beyond chastity, and Protestant wives doing likewise with less institutional support. Hufton's contributors trace the mainly volunteer-driven rise of education by and for females. They portray Europe's ancient caste-like divisions of roles or virtues for men and for women, shifting at roughly the speed of a melting glacier. From seeing initiative by females as the original source of evil, society begins to trust tapping women's potential for innovation.

A history course in a University should be created around this book! So might insightful information about the day-to-day existence of people during this period in history. An incredible amount of information is provided in an easy-to-read format by the author. A must read for anyone interested in the histoy of women throughout the ages.

If you want to thank your lucky stars for the things that are available to us in modern times, read this book. It is an excellent scholarly overview of the lives and times in the period it covers, but as well it is a fascinating book for anyone who enjoys reading about times past.Each chapter addresses an area that was of interest to women of the times, and remain of interest today - health, cooking etc, and they are so complete in addressing the issues that they read like small essays on their own.This is a really enjoyable book, and not just for its scholarly value.

The period 1500 - 1800 is marked with great social and political upheaval. Olwen Hufton has taken on a monumental task in trying to show, not only the various types of women within this period (rural, urban, old, young, wives, widows, spinsters) but also how their lives changed as society and politics changed (renaissance, industrial revolution, religous oppression). The result is an easy to read and entertaining book that gives a general picture of the women of Western Europe (using various surveys and censuses) as well as concentrating on specific areas to give a human face to the statistics (personal accounts, diaries). The extensive notes and bibliography make it usuful for those who wish to study more about this period.An informative and entertaining read