This biography of four Colonial women of the Philipse dynasty spans more than a century between Margaret Hardenbroeck’s 1659 arrival in New Amsterdam to the loss of her great-granddaughter Mary Philipse Morris’s estates following the Revolutionary War. I have mixed feelings about this book. I hate it when biographers tell us what their subjects thought if there isn’t documentation to back it up like a diary or letters. This author does this repeatedly throughout the book. She tells readers what Margaret thought about as she sat on her stoop, and what Mary and her husband talked about as they rode together in their carriage. There are no diaries or letters in the source list. The source list reveals another weakness in the book, as it does not include archival or primary sources. The author relied almost exclusively on secondary sources. Finally, while it’s presented as women’s history, it’s really more of a history of the Philipse family, as there is as much emphasis on the men of the family as on the women.

Despite its flaws, I am glad that I read the book since I have New Amsterdam and New Netherlands ancestry. The book’s main strength is the social history of Colonial New York and families like the Philipses who built fortunes during that era. My ancestors weren’t in the same social circles as the Philipse family, but it’s likely that they would have done business with them at some point. At the very least, they would have used the Philipse family’s toll bridge that linked Manhattan to Westchester County and the outlying farmland. ( )

Interesting view of the rise and fall of a dynasty in colonial New York. I was especially intrigued by the rights the Dutch women had, as compared to the status of other European women. ( )

I loved this. An interesting examination of, to me, a little known aspect of early history in the americas combined with a detailed tracing of a family through place and objects.
I adore history which appeals to the mind and the imagination!

A fascinating portrait of life in colonial New York, as seen through the lives of four of its women. Somehow Jean Zimmerman has pulled flesh-and-blood characters out of historical obscurity and rendered them real. Don't read this book just becasue it's good that women are finally getting the attention of serious, interesting historians -- read it because it is a good book. ( )