<P>This engaging, exciting book looks at the world of the strong, enterprising, forceful and occasionally manipulative women in early modern Britain and America.</P><BR><UL><LI>Contests the accepted view that these were male-dominated patriarchal societies, in which women played a subordinate and generally private role.<P></P></LI><LI>Challenges these orthodoxies and shows that were important agents in the social, economic, religious and cultural life of their societies.<P></P></LI><LI>No other book looks in such depth not only at the role of women within marriage but also at their cultural roles. <P></P></LI><LI>No other book draws on such a wide range of both primary and secondary sources. <P></P></LI></UL>