Parenting today is virtually synonymous with worry. We want to ensure that our children are healthy, that they get a good education, and that they grow up to be able to cope with the challenges of modern life. In our anxiety, we are keenly aware of our inability to know what is best for our children. When should we toilet train? What is the best way to encourage a fussy child to eat? How should we protect our children from disease and injury?

Before the nineteenth century, maternal instinct--a mother's "natural know-how"--was considered the only tool necessary for effective childrearing....

This collection of essays brings together some of the most exciting recent scholarship on mothers and motherhood. Motherhood is a significant experience for the overwhelming majority of American women, and the work of mothering-in individual families and in communities-has shaped the lives of all Americans. But it is only recently that historians have begun to examine mothers and motherhood as a phenomenon distinct from, yet deeply intertwined with, family history and women's history. Rima D. Apple is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, School of Human Ecology and...