Book Review

Although the author's focus is limited to the provincial middle class of the Connecticut River valley, her arguments range widely. Catherine E. Kelly inserts both the female perspective and the implications of this addition for many of the issues debated among historians of the antebellum United States. With complexity and thoughtfulness she addresses middle-class formation, rural capitalism, separate spheres ideology, and the contours of the affectionate family. Her overarching formulation is that the interdependent, rural, household economy remained central even as the reality receded into the recent past. Provincial people were not simply nostalgic in their focus; rather, Kelly argues, the language surrounding economic transformation had many layers. For example, historians usually argue that women progressed from producers to consumers as the economy evolved. The author observes instead that provincial women may have become more involved in production as the economy changed. These women now worked to provide the accoutrements of middle-class life. Even when they seemed to follow fashion and consume for "social emulation's" sake, Kelly argues that even this kind of consuming was in fact tied to older notions of social obligation and the household economy.

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