This book is the first history of women to integrate the history of women into general history. In it, Hufton, a distinguished historian and award-winning author, brings together a mass of detailed material on women in early modern Europe.

Already hailed by English critics as "one of the most important works of history to be published since the Second World War, " Olwen Hufton's fascinating and brilliantly learned study begins, in this first of two volumes, with a wide ranging exploration of women's fate in Western Europe from medieval times to the early modern age. of illustrations.

This book is the first history of women to integrate the history of women into general history. In it, Hufton, a distinguished historian and award-winning author, brings together a mass of detailed material on women in early modern Europe.

This monumental new book decisively enlarges our understanding of the history of women. Hufton leads readers from poorhouse to palazzo, from cradle to grave, illuminating what it meant to be female in pre-modern Europe. "A major effort at synthesis".--"The New York Times Book Review". "One of the most important works of history since the Second World War".--"The Observer" (London). of illustrations.

History of women in western Europe during the years 1500 to 1800, discussing what females of various stations could expect at every stage of life from the time of their birth.