in the early 1950s, she published her first two books. "lewis farm: a new england saga" (1950) traced the changing patterns of life for the women of earlier generations of her own family and was privately printed. "revolutions of 1848: a social history" (1952) was the first major english-language survey of the revolutions of 1848. the "new york times" praised it as in the best tradition of humanism.