BOOKS:
Balmer, Randall Herbert. A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
"Balmer's discussion of the cooptation of the Dutch elite and the decline of their ethnic distinctiveness is a fascinating, convincing piece of cultural analysis. Unhappily, I found his discussion of pietistic religion less successful. . . . In the end, Balmer's narrative of the little-known Dutch experience in the Middle Colonies renders this book a useful addition to the literature. More important, his work on Anglicization, the capitulation of the Dutch elite for gain, and the obstinacy of the middling and lower classes in refusing to give up their cultural integrity raises questions and suggests patterns that specialists in the colonial period cannot afford to ignore." (From a review by Marilyn J. Westerkamp, published in the American Historical Review 95 (Dec. 1990): 1622.)
Randall Herbert Balmer is a professor of religion at Columbia University.
Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.
"That European colonists changed the environment of the New World is not a startling new finding. Cronon breaks new ground by studying the changes that the colonization of New England brought to the region's ecology, finding that the changes brought on by agriculture were as profound as those from an agricultural to an urban environment. . . . In Cronon's view the people of plenty were a people of waste, and today's Americans have to live with their legacy." (From a review by Elliot W. Hoffman, published in the Library Journal 108 (June 1, 1983): 1136.)
William Cronon is a professor of history, geography, and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Hamm, Thomas. The Quakers in America. Baltimore: Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2003.
"Hamm's book on Quaker beliefs and history serves both as a primer for novices and a quick reference for specialists. Employing a very readable style and a first-rate organizational approach, the book clarifies the various confusing divisions within contemporary Quakerism, ranging from fundamentalism to New Age Universalism. This exceptional book is one of the best works ever written about American Quakerism." (From a review by S.J. White, published in the Historian 67, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 319-20.)
Thomas Hamm is a professor of history at Earlham College.
Hawke, David Freeman. Everyday Life in Early America. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
"Published as the inaugural work in Harper and Row's Everyday Life in America series edited by Richard Balkin, Hawke's work encapsules secondary works on towns, counties, farms, houses, homes, health, rhythms of life, manners, morals, racial relations, war, religion and superstitions, and the countryside. In a succinct, lucid style, Hawke teases out generalizations from the often-fragmented body of microcosmic studies in the field.” (From a review by William Howland Kenney, published in the Journal of American History 75 (Mar. 1989): 1300.)
David Freeman Hawke is a professor of history at Lehman College.
Hudson, Charles M. The Forgotten Centuries: Indians and Europeans in the American South, 1521-1704. . Cambridge: Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994.
“Following the editors' introduction, the seventeen essays group into four sections, with the first devoted to Spanish exploration, primarily reconsiderations of where adventurers actually went. The centerpiece is Charles Hudson's new reconstruction--the fruit of a ten-year endeavor linking literary evidence to recent archaeological discoveries--of the Hernando De Soto expedition's march. Hudson's proposed (and controversial) identifications will interest primarily specialists, but the piece introduces others to the size, variety, and achievements of the indigenous societies just before European-born epidemics decimated their numbers and unhinged their cultures." (From a review by Charles L. Cohen, published in The Sixteenth Century Journal 26 (Winter 1995): 1024-6).)
Charles M. Hudson is a professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia.
Lambert, Frank. The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
"How did the United States, founded as colonies with explicitly religious aspirations, come to be the first modern state whose commitment to the separation of church and state was reflected in its constitution? Frank Lambert explains why this happened, offering in the process a synthesis of American history from the first British arrivals through Thomas Jefferson's controversial presidency. Lambert recognizes that two sets of spiritual fathers defined the place of religion in early America: what Lambert calls the Planting Fathers, who brought Old World ideas and dreams of building a "City upon a Hill," and the Founding Fathers, who determined the constitutional arrangement of religion in the new republic. While the former proselytized the "one true faith," the latter emphasized religious freedom over religious purity." (Abstract from book cover)
Frank Lambert is a professor of history at Purdue University.
McDougall, Walter A. Freedom Just Around the Corner: a New American History, 1585-
1828. New York: Harper Collins, 2004.
"McDougall proposes that the [United States] was shaped by five factors: geography, technology, demography, the federative impulse, and, perhaps most important, its reality-based mythology, e.g., its civic religion, the stated respect for public virtue, and the relative compatibility of its diverse faiths. Under girding this volume is McDougall's delineation of the American people's propensity for 'hustling,' a character trait that variously represents resourcefulness, deception, reinvention, and opportunism. Influential hustlers include the bogus 'Baron von' Steuben, who nevertheless developed the Continental Army, and Methodist Francis Asbury and Roman Catholic John Carroll, who effectively adapted their creeds to the American mosaic and became great promoters." (From a review by Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., published in the Library Journal 129, no. 4 (Mar. 2004): 91-2.)
Walter A. McDougall is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.
Nash, Gary B. Red, White and Black. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974.
"This book presents an interpretive account of the interactions between Native Americans, African Americans and Euroamericans during the colonial and revolutionary eras. Nash argues that, for a fuller and deeper understanding of the nation’s underpinnings, it is crucial to see how interlocked were the destinies of Northern America’s many people and how fluid were their interactions in the first two centuries of European and African presence on the continent." (Abstract from book cover.)
Gary B. Nash is a professor of history at UCLA.
Pestana, C. G. Quakers and Baptists in Colonial Massachusetts. Cambridge University
Press, 1991.
"By 1780, the year Pestana closes her study, there were fifty-nine Baptist churches in Massachusetts. Boston hardly seems like a representative or typical case. Although Boston's selection is useful for understanding the early development of popular religious beliefs, this case fails when moving to generalizations about denominational evolution. . . . While Pestana's choice of Boston may not tell us much about Baptist dissent, her analysis of Quakers redefines our understanding of this sect. . . . {She} gives us a glimpse of a group of radical sectarians that revises our understanding of early Quakers. Thus, she provides a striking examination of Quakers that stands in contrast to studies focusing on the post-Foxonian Pennsylvania experiment." (From a review by Stephen Grossbart, published in Reviews in American History 20 (Dec. 1992): 472.)
C.G. Pestana is a professor of history at Miami University, Ohio.
Taylor, Alan. American Colonies. New York: Viking, 2001.
"Taylor examines American colonial history from a wide-ranging perspective. Instead of offering the traditional story of the English colonies and "American exceptionalism," Taylor examines the complex mix of peoples, events, and influences that shaped the New World. He notes that the intermingling of cultures, people, plants, and animals from different parts of the world was unparalleled in speed and volume and had devastating consequences for the environment and most of the participants. Only a very select few prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, a period in which North America actually lost population owing to diseases, wars, and early deaths. He vividly describes the harsh realities of colonial life and examines the important roles played by French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, and English colonists as well as Native Americans and African slaves." (From a review by Robert Flatley, published in the Library Journal 126, no. 17 (Oct. 2001): 94.)
Alan Taylor is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis.
Wokeck, Marianne S. Trade in Strangers: The Beginning of the Mass Migration to North
America. University Park, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
"The heart of the book lies in the exploration of transportation systems from the Rhineland and an assessment of the experiences of migrants who used them, each of which receives a long chapter. . . . There are discussions of shipboard conditions, counters to merchant attempts to exploit passengers, and responses to disasters--death of a family member en route did not remove the obligation of the family for that person's fare. . . . There are some minor problems. . . . Compared to recent books by A.G. Roeber and Aaron Fogleman, on migration from Germany to the English North American colonies, Wokeck's study complements rather than overlaps, and where it does overlap, it should be taken as superseding its predecessors." (From a review by David Eltis, published in Reviews in American History 28, no. 2 (June 2000): 181-6.)
Marianne S. Wokeck is a professor of history at IUPUI.
ARTICLES:
Cohen, Charles L. “The Colonization of British North America as an Episode in the History
of Christianity." Church History 72 (Sept. 2003): 553-569.
“Discusses the arrival of Christianity to colonial British North America as a defining moment in the history of Christianity. Declension model of colonial religious history; Expansion of faith from European Christendom to non-Christian periphery; Existence of proprietary and chartered colonies.” (Abstract from Inspire)
Charles L. Cohen is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Access: This article is available online through Inspire.
Codignola, Luca. “Competing Networks: Roman Catholic Ecclesiastics in French North America, 1610-58.” Canadian Historical Review 80 (Dec. 1999): 539-85.
“Focuses on the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics of French origin and examines the geographical, family and educational background of the priests who left for North America between 1610 and 1658. Factors that influenced the evangelization of French North America; Emergence of rivalries between the ecclesiastics that forged group allegiances" (Abstract from Inspire)
Luca Codignola is Professor of History at the University of Genoa, Italy.
Access: This article is available online through Inspire
Hatfield, April. “Spanish Colonization Literature, Powhatan Geographies, and English Perceptions of Tsenacommacah/Virginia.” Journal of Southern History 69, no. 2 (May 2003): 245-83.
“Studies the perception of English colonizers of Virginia's geography. Influence of Spanish colonization literature on English perceptions; Beliefs about the specifics of American environments and populations; Sequences of English settlements in Virginia; Interactions between English colonizers and Powhatans.” (Abstract from Inspire)
April Hatfield is Professor of HIstory at Texas A&M University.
Access: This article is available online through Inspire
Lawrence, Bonita. “Gender, Race and the Regulation of Native Identity in Canada and the United States: An Overview.” Hypatia 18 (Spring 2003): 3-33.
“Presents an overview of the regulation of native identity, which has been central to the colonization process in the U.S. and Canada. Systems of classification and control that enable settler governments to define who is 'Indian' and control access to native lands; Gender and race issues in the regulation of native identity.” (Abstract from
Inspire)
Bonita Lawrence is Professor of Women’s Studies at Queen’s University, Canada.
Access: This article is available online through Inspire
Longmore, Paul K. “’They…Speak Better English Than the English Do’: Colonialism and the Origins of National Linguistic Standardization in America.” Early American Literature 40, no. 2 (June 2005): 279-315.
“This article examines the colonial origins of the movement to standardize and nationalize American English. The central fact of colonials' experience is that they act as agents of an expansionist imperial society. As users of the koine nativize their common tongue, they continuously render normative judgments about alternative usages. Colonials' adoption of the metropolitan standard of English and their manner of applying it appear in three kinds of evidence: contemporary observers' evaluations of colonial speech, higher-status colonials' descriptions of British immigrants' non-standard English speech, and colonials' formal efforts to educate themselves in metropolitan standard English. That metropolitan speech was the measure of good English is confirmed in part by negative evidence. The alertness of masters to servants' regional accents, to their bad and broken English and their occasional good or plain speech, complemented British observers' praise of colonial speech as pure and perfect, accurate and elegant. Over several centuries, state policies gradually encouraged national language rationalization. The English Crown launched standardization of the English language during the late Middle Ages. Throughout the seventeenth century, both colonization and culture expressed the emerging English national consciousness. In the mid-eighteenth century, the movement entered a new phase by developing an explicit ideology of standardization.” (Abstract from Inspire)
Paul K. Longmore is a Professor of History at San Francisco State University.
Access: This article is available online through Inspire
Piker, Joshua. “Colonists and Creeks: Rethinking the Pre-Revolutionary Southern Backcountry.” Journal of Southern History 70 (Aug. 2004): 503-41.
“Argues that the historical narratives pertaining to the lives of Creek Indians of the pre-revolutionary southern United States were flawed. Decades of chronic hostility between Native Americans and their European colonizers fueled by land ownership and hatred; Failure of historians to appreciate the nature and durability of socioeconomic relations that emerged in the region; Historical treatment of Indians as static and homogenous.” (Abstract from
Inspire)
Joshua Piker is Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma .
Access: This article is available online through Inspire
Tiedemann, Joseph S. “Presbyterianism and the American Revolution in the Middle Colonies.” Church History 74, no. 2 (June 2005): 306-45.
“Discusses the role played by Presbyterianism in the Revolution in the U.S. in the Middle Colonies. Background on Middle-Colony Presbyterianism; Debate among historians over Presbyterianism and Patriotism; Details on the English civil wars and Middle-Colony Presbyterianism.” (Abstract from
Inspire)
Joseph S. Tiedemann is Professor of History at Loyola MarymountUniversity.
Access: This article is available online through Inspire
RECOMMENDED SOURCES:
13 Originals: Founding the American Colonies
website: http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html
America’s Story
website: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/colonial
Internet Modern History Sourcebook, from Fordham University
website: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook07.html#Colonial%20North%20America
American Women's History: A Research Guide Colonial America
website: http://www.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women/wh-colonial.html
IHC smartDESKTOP Resource Connection
search for: Colonial Period
