This book is very interesting way to learn about everyday life in America in the late 1700's-early 1800s. The extracted diary entries themselves are not that interesting; it is Ulrich's extrapolation of events in Martha's life that makes it so. She ties in information from other entries not presented, writings from other contemporaries (usually men), and historical documents to make a cohesive subject. Each chapter seems to develop a specific theme, e.g. medical practice, crime & punishment, marital customs, gardening, local economy and women's contributions, the rebellion of squatters trying to settle land owned by a major corporation. It countered my current assumptions that "women weren't educated" or "women with children out of wedlock were shunned".
While I didn't read all the diary extracts, looking at Martha's spelling was quite interesting and made me wonder that maybe the current theory of encouraging young students to write without regard to spelling might be an excellent way to get them to express themselves.
I hope that Ulrich left a transcript of the diary with the Maine Historical Society for future researchers use. ( )

Diary of a midwife in Hallowell, Maine; daily entries give insight into the life of the community, particularly the women’s economic network that is missing from histories; explicated by Ulrich. The diary itself is fascinating, not because what Martha Ballard was doing was extraordinary, but because it wasn't--for rural Maine in 1800. And then there are Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's careful and thorough notes about how Martha's words fit in with what else we know about the society. One of the things I remember most from when I read it is the existence of a whole sub-economy that operated among the women--which was evidently completely invisible to the men's notions of the economic system--or at least to history, until now. ( )

nonfiction/women's economic & social history (1780s-1810s in Maine).
These pulitzer winners are always so meticulously researched; here is a woman's life (the grandmother of Clara Barton) as reconstructed through primary sources. Not all the chapters are going to be interesting to all readers, but a lot of it was for me. ( )

Sometimes I need more than 5 stars to review a book, this is one. Fascinating book revealing life on the edge at the beginning of white America. Every day every action, every death, every birth, every sickness, all for the good Lord willing it or allowing it. What a hard life they lived. Every step they took was basically fraught with peril - having a baby could easily mean death, crossing thru the woods to your neighbors house could result in a fall and death... ( )

An intimate look at the life of a 18th-century midwife, healer, housewife, and mother in rural Maine. Drawing on the seemingly bare diary entries of Martha Ballard, Ulrich paints an honest and vivid picture of the work of women throughout a period in history when they were considered unremarkable and their influence was often overlooked. ( )