Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar at Hamilton and the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University, will present a lecture titled "Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History," on Wednesday, March 5, at 8 p.m. in the Chapel. The talk asks what it means to make history and what if anything that has to do with being well-behaved. It is free and open to the public.
Ulrich's major fields of interest are early American social history, women's history, and material culture. She is the author of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990) which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991 and became the basis of a PBS documentary. The book examines the life of Northern New England midwife Martha Ballard, and provides a vivid examination of ordinary life in the early American republic, including the role of women in the household and local market economy, the nature of marriage and sexual relations, aspects of medical practice, and the prevalence of violence and crime.
Ulrich's most recent book is Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History (2007). She also wrote Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Early New England, 1650-1750 (1982) and The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Making of an American Myth (2001).
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 1995, she taught at the University of New Hampshire for 15 years. Ulrich is a member of the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was named a MacArthur fellow in 1992. Recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and two awards from the NEH, she has been honored with excellence in teaching awards at Harvard.
Ulrich's work is also featured on an award-winning Web site, dohistory.org.
Ulrich's major fields of interest are early American social history, women's history, and material culture. She is the author of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990) which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991 and became the basis of a PBS documentary. The book examines the life of Northern New England midwife Martha Ballard, and provides a vivid examination of ordinary life in the early American republic, including the role of women in the household and local market economy, the nature of marriage and sexual relations, aspects of medical practice, and the prevalence of violence and crime.
Ulrich's most recent book is Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History (2007). She also wrote Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Early New England, 1650-1750 (1982) and The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Making of an American Myth (2001).
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 1995, she taught at the University of New Hampshire for 15 years. Ulrich is a member of the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was named a MacArthur fellow in 1992. Recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and two awards from the NEH, she has been honored with excellence in teaching awards at Harvard.
Ulrich's work is also featured on an award-winning Web site, dohistory.org.
