Jeopardy

This is scholarship of the highest order, at once readable, instructive, critical, myth-smashing, eye-opening, and appreciative. We learn, among about a thousand other things, how and why women in New England (as in Appalachia) came to be the spinners and weavers and thus to deviate, with important consequences, from the European model in which men dominated the artisanal textile industries; just how difficult it was for those women to "raise flax, shear sheep, clean wool, comb worsted, spin, reel, bleach, dye, and weave yarn" (206); how much more time-consuming was the spinner's work than that of the weaver; how weather affected the quality of spun thread; and that the fabrics carefully stored in any given piece of early American furniture were almost always worth more than the furniture itself. This last is a fitting metaphor for the often overlooked value of women's work, and for the value of scholars who look inside the bureau-drawers of history. —Jane Eblen Keller JEOPARDY As I watch you planted in your easy chair, you seem to have the answers. Aware of all you know, you never waver. It's about strategy. You wager correctly— cut your losses if need be. Just don't forget to question. —Jana Durbin 97 ...