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1. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679733760/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0679733760&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=a818f98524c020e5e923f1b310482750 A Midwive's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812],'' (Vintage Books, 1990). This book is a classic. In it, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich contextualizes the "exhaustive, repetitious dailiness" of Martha Ballard's life.<ref name=''A Midwive's Tale''>[Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, ''A Midwive's Tale''], p. 9.</ref> Ballard kept a diary for more than 27 years, and Ulrich was able to create a clear picture of what life was like for in New England. Through her analysis of Ballard's diary, Ulrich covers topics from abortion and childbirth to rape. Ulrich's work is a rich resource for those interested in what average life looked like in the late 18th century.
2. Carol F. Karlsen, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393317595/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393317595&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=cb791346d3eaa0606b6545685695445d The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England]'', (W.W. Norton & Co., 1998). The history of witchcraft in colonial America is both eerie and fascinating. Part of our fascination stems from how intellectually frustrating this phenomenon--the Salem Witch Trials, for example--was, but also how dramatic colonists' responses to these witches were. Karlsen explores the history of witchcraft in colonial America with clarity. Expressing that the history of witchcraft ''is'' women's history, and our analysis of can shift when we explore for an explicitly gendered lens.
3. María Elena Martínez, ''Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico'', (Stanford University Press, 2008). In ''Genealogical Fictions'', Martínez charts the rise of racial categories in Spain's colonies. Martínez details the origin of this system in the Iberian peninsula, then charts the transformations and problems that emerge when this system is imposed onto a diverse and distant population. One of the central pillars of this book is the focus on gender and sexuality. As a system concerned with biological reproduction, female sexuality was central to determining legitimacy, hierarchy, and purity. But Martínez goes even further to detail how gendered descriptions were fixed to colonized peoples--ultimately cementing their fixed positions in the Spanish racial hierarchy.
