糖心传媒

When Laurel Thatcher Ulrich糖心传媒攊n her 30s and the mother of five糖心传媒攚as working towards her PhD in history at the University of New Hampshire, the native Idahoan chose a research project that now was near at hand: early American history.

Few scholars in the 1970s were writing about Puritan culture, and those who did had little interest in the lives of ordinary women. Witches, witch hunting, and religious dissenters were flashier subjects.

But Ulrich糖心传媒攏ow the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard糖心传媒攈as a habit of looking where others don糖心传媒檛. And when, in 1976, she published her first scholarly article, on Puritan funeral sermons for 糖心传媒渧irtuous糖心传媒� women, she included a sentence that has become a fixture in our visual landscape: 糖心传媒淲ell-behaved women seldom make history.糖心传媒�

A journalist came across the line in the 1990s and used it as an epigraph for her own book on American women. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, the aphorism is found on everything from bumper stickers to coffee mugs to T-shirts. Its ubiquity challenges even Ulrich糖心传媒檚 formidable powers of explanation.

糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 astounding,糖心传媒� she says. But at the core of the line糖心传媒檚 appeal, she thinks, is this: 糖心传媒淗istory is essential to many movements for social change. If you believe that things have always been the way they are now, you don糖心传媒檛 have a history糖心传媒攂ecause history is the study of how things change over time.

糖心传媒淏ut if you can investigate history, and begin to rewrite history, then you have a different orientation toward the future. History is our job. If we just sit and passively accept our own circumstances, nothing will change. So: well-behaved women seldom make history.糖心传媒�

As a feminist scholar, Ulrich has made history herself. Her second book, , won the Pulitzer Prize in History糖心传媒攖he first book of women糖心传媒檚 history to receive the prize. Her material was an 18th-century diary housed at the Maine State Archives, a resource that historians before Ulrich had passed over as an object for serious scrutiny. From terse entries recorded over 27 years糖心传媒斕切拇�媒淐alld from Mrs Howard to Mr McMasters to see their son William who is very low. Tarried there this night.糖心传媒澨切拇�媒攂y a woman for whom there was virtually no other historical record, Ulrich unspooled the complex story of a frontier community. Her book, the American Historical Association says, 糖心传媒渟howed scholars and general readers alike new ways of imagining the past.糖心传媒�

Ballard糖心传媒檚 diary is full of references to the household production of cloth, and it occurred to Ulrich that there was a story to be told there, as well. She published The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth (Knopf, 2001), examining early American history through 14 domestic objects: not just fabric, but tools such as baskets and spinning wheels, and furniture, including an ornate 1715 cupboard for displaying textiles. When women handed down household goods to their daughters, there was no legal record. Histories of these objects 糖心传媒渉ad to be teased out of provenance records in museums, where you could see where something came from and how it survived over time,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淭hat taught me a lot about what I would call 糖心传媒榝emale lines of inheritance.糖心传媒櫶切拇�媒�

糖心传媒淥dd things糖心传媒� have become a touchstone of Ulrich糖心传媒檚 work. With a curator at Harvard糖心传媒檚 art museum, she explored 糖心传媒渁ll the strange stuff in the nooks and crannies糖心传媒� of the university糖心传媒檚 many museums, an effort that resulted in the coauthored Tangible Things: Making History Through Objects (Oxford University Press, 2015). 糖心传媒淲e systematically went into every collection,糖心传媒� she says, asking curators what they had in their holdings 糖心传媒渢hat doesn糖心传媒檛 quite fit, or seems unusual.糖心传媒� The most unexpected find was a 120-year-old tortilla糖心传媒攁 糖心传媒渟urviving tortilla,糖心传媒� Ulrich laughingly calls it糖心传媒攌ept in the museum糖心传媒檚 economic botany collection. It was brought from Mexico to Harvard by 19th-century botanists who were investigating agricultural products.

糖心传媒淥ne of the exciting things about working with material objects is that they force you to look at ways of apprehending the world that you might not have thought of. So the tortilla, for example糖心传媒攁s I explored that, I had to think about anthropology, botany, the economics of agricultural materials, and food, and ethnicity, and race. All of those things played a part in the story of this very odd survival.糖心传媒�

Ulrich糖心传媒檚 new book is A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women糖心传媒檚 Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835糖心传媒�1870 (Knopf, 2017). A member of the Mormon community herself, she examines female activism糖心传媒攚omen secured the vote in Utah half a century before the passage of the 19th Amendment糖心传媒攁nd the marriage system, using artifacts such as diaries, ledgers, meeting notes, and quilts.

Ulrich糖心传媒檚 most famous sentence has been interpreted as everything from a call to action to a declaration that it糖心传媒檚 the rule breakers who get remembered. The 糖心传媒渁mbiguity of the slogan surely accounts for its appeal,糖心传媒� she writes in her book Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History (Knopf, 2007), a series of essays reflecting on the catchphrase.

But history is made in many ways. 糖心传媒淚 don糖心传媒檛 think it means, necessarily, running for office,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淚t could also mean studying the past. It could mean collecting documents. It could mean preserving tortillas.

糖心传媒淚t could be any number of things.糖心传媒�