Reviews of In Dependence:

“A fascinating and affirming portrait of how women negotiated power by leaning into their dependent status. In Dependence is cogently argued and well written.” 
Kelly A. Ryan, author of Regulating Passion: Sexuality and Patriarchal Rule in Massachusetts, 1700–1830

“A powerful book whose assertions transform our understanding of women’s agency in early America. Beatty masterfully teases out meaning from an exhaustive range of sources to demonstrate how women’s dependent status, rather than independent status, enabled them to achieve financial and legal protections.” 
Susan Branson, author of Dangerous to Know: Women, Crime, and Notoriety in the Early Republic

“Impressive and comprehensive. Beatty skillfully utilizes a range of sources in a novel manner to illuminate the plight of women in an era when husbands who did not provide adequate support for wives and children, or even resorted to cruelty and abuse, were rarely held accountable. Yet, as Beatty demonstrates, women found ways to use the patriarchal system to their advantage to succeed in achieving redress. In Dependence is a well-researched and important addition to the scholarly literature on the role of women in early America.”
Jeanne E. Abrams, University of Denver

“[Beatty’s] fascinating study explores the multiple ways Black and white women used and were used by the idea of dependence in the new independent nation.” 
Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor, William and Mary Quarterly

“The real contribution of this persuasive book is to show that the American Revolution did very little to weaken the pervasive power of the patriarchal state.” 
Serena Zabin, The Journal of Southern History

“This book is a worthy contribution to social and women’s history of the early republic….Beatty moves skillfully from individuals’ stories to broad cultural values to theoretical concepts and back, weaving narrative and analysis into an engaging and compelling whole.” 
Sarah Heim, The Journal of the Early Republic

“The rich stories within In Dependence underscore a story of continuity and stagnation; how the American experience continues to be full of paradoxes and discriminatory practices enroute to attaining civil liberties.” 
Arya Martinez, The New England Journal of History