You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
None
A portrait of colonial American as a restless society divided against itself.
William Byrd II (1674-1744) was an important figure in the history of colonial Virginia: a founder of Richmond, an active participant in Virginia politics, and the proprietor of one of the colony's greatest plantations. But Byrd is best known today for his diaries. Considered essential documents of private life in colonial America, they offer readers an unparalleled glimpse into the world of a Virginia gentleman. This book joins Byrd's Diary, Secret Diary, and other writings in securing his reputation as one of the most interesting men in colonial America. Edited and presented here for the first time, Byrd's commonplace book is a collection of moral wit and wisdom gleaned from reading and co...
These thirteen original essays are provocative explorations in the construction and representation of self in America's colonial and early republican eras. Highlighting the increasing importance of interdisciplinary research for the field of early American history, these leading scholars in the field extend their reach to literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, and material culture. The collection is organized into three parts--Histories of Self, Texts of Self, and Reflections on Defining Self. Individual essays examine the significance of dreams, diaries, and carved chests, murder and suicide, Indian kinship, and the experiences of African American sailors. Gathered in celebration of the Institute of Early American History and Culture's fiftieth anniversary, these imaginative inquiries will stimulate critical thinking and open new avenues of investigation on the forging of self-identity in early America. The contributors are W. Jeffrey Bolster, T. H. Breen, Elaine Forman Crane, Greg Dening, Philip Greven, Rhys Isaac, Kenneth A. Lockridge, James H. Merrell, Donna Merwick, Mary Beth Norton, Mechal Sobel, Alan Taylor, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and Richard White.
For nearly 30 years the work of the Swedish Lutheran pastor and pioneering social historian Egil Johansson astonished the international scholarly world. Working initially with parish registers, especially examination registers, from northern Sweden, Johansson discovered the extraordinary usefulness of these documents to detail the history of universal literacy in Sweden. In this book a group of renowned scholars review and explore the possibilities for the wider circulation and broader application of central dimensions of the early literacy studies. The active thrust and exceptional growth in historical literacy studies over the past two decades has propelled the subject into a new prominenc...
Ian K. Steele's pioneering work in imperial and early North American history was a pivotal contribution to the establishment of Atlantic history as a field. His study of a unified English - and later British - Atlantic challenged American exceptionalism and encouraged the current wave of interest in Atlantic studies.
This eloquent and provocative essay describes the emergence of a Virginia gentleman. Sent to England for an education, William Byrd II soon learned to emulate the ideals of English gentility. In 1704 the thirty-year-old Byrd inherited his father's estates in Virginia, but he lived in England for much of the next twenty-five years pursuing his political ambitions. Thwarted in his efforts to obtain either the position to which he aspired or a wealthy bride, Byrd finally faced personal and financial ruin. Only then did he come to be both literally and figuratively at home in Virginia. The story is told through Kenneth Lockridge's compelling reading of a seemingly intractable source: Byrd's secr...
Deals with the encounters of Europeans and Indians in colonial North America. A blending of history and anthropology, the author draws on a wide variety of sources, including archaeological findings, linguistics, accounts of colonists, art, and published scholarship.
The comprehensive history of a system of faith that shaped the nation.