Book excerpt: "In this physically small but conceptually rich volume, Cherniavsky begins by situating the notion of essentialized motherhood within the constitution of modern bourgeois subjectivity and, more specifically, of a rational democratic social order in early national America." -- American Literature "... an admirable contribution to the current debates over the meaning and implications of motherhood in contemporary culture." -- UCG Women's Studies Centre Review "With its wide range of reference and use of sophisticated critical paradigms, this book is a demanding study that will be of special interest to readers concerned with 19th century American fiction and current debates surrounding the maternal." -- Studies on Women Abstracts That Pale Mother Rising concerns the persistence of essentialized motherhood in the midst of the postmodern, linking nineteenth-century sentimentalism to the American founders' understanding of the democratic social body.