Hopeful Journeys: German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in Colonial America, 1717-1775 (Early American Studies)

Book Description

In 1700, some 250,000 white and black inhabitants populated the thirteen American colonies, with the vast majority of whites either born in England or descended from English immigrants. By 1776, the non-Native American population had increased tenfold, and non-English Europeans and Africans dominated new immigration. Of all the European immigrant groups, the Germans may have been the largest.

Aaron Spencer Fogleman has written the first comprehensive history of this eighteenth-century German settlement of North America. Utilizing a vast body of published and archival sources, many of them never before made accessible outside of Germany, Fogleman emphasizes the importance of German immigration to colonial America, the European context of the Germans' emigration, and the importance of networks to their success in America

Customer Reviews:

A scholarly analysis of German immigration during the 1700's.......1998-12-14

Aaron Fogleman presents new research to help in understanding some characteristics of the German migration to the new world during the 1700's. His language is somewhat stilted, or others might describe it as scholarly, somewhat like a graduate school thesis. But there is lots of good information between it's covers. One of the most interesting themes in the book is tracking the immigrants from one particular region located between Heidelberg and Heilbronn, along the Neckar River. This detailed information helps one to see exactly what was involved in the decision to go to the New World, in the trip getting there, and in beginning a new life in Pennsylvania. The author also treats the German political scene in colonial Pennsylvania.

The book is heavily foot-noted, with an extensive bibliography and index. A good source book for further studies of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture.

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Adapting to a New World

Adapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake (Institute of Early American History and Culture)
James Horn
Manufacturer: University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century

Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World (Harvard Historical Studies)

New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century

Colonial Chesapeake Society

Foul Means: The Formation of a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660-1740 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)

ASIN: 0807821373

Customer Reviews:

Adapting to a New World.......2000-05-05

Horn compares local societies in England and the colonial Chesapeake to support his argument that the social development of 17th century Virginia and Maryland cannot be fully understood unless it is placed within the broader context of the social development of the 17th century Anglophone world. Until nearly the end of the 1600s, the majority of colonists in the Chesapeake were born and raised in England. They brought with them not only English traditions and customs, but also news and attitudes that reflected the current social developments in England. The colonial societies were affected by these developments. For instance, the uprisings against proprietary rule in Maryland and Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia appear far less extraordinary when they are viewed together with the political upheavals occurring in England. This broader view of the colonial Chesapeake refutes claims that Virginia and Maryland were somehow abhorrent, rather they were preserving and adapting English traditions and customs to life on the Chesapeake while operating in an extended Anglophone world.

Transatlantic Radicals and the Early American Republic

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Not easy reading but great study

Transatlantic Radicals and the Early American Republic
Michael Durey
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Emigration & Immigration | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

In the transatlantic world of the late eighteenth century, easterly winds blew radical thought to America.

Thomas Paine had already arrived on these shores in 1774 and made his mark as a radical pamphleteer during the Revolution. In his wake followed more than 200 other radical exiles--English Dissenters, Whigs, and Painites; Scottish "lads o'parts"; and Irish patriots--who became influential newspaper writers and editors and helped change the nature of political discourse in a young nation.

Michael Durey has written the first full-scale analysis of these radicals, evaluating the long-term influence their ideas have had on American political thought. Transatlantic Radicals uncovers the roots of their radicalism in the Old World and tells the story of how these men came to be exiled, how they emigrated, and how they participated in the politics of their adopted country.

Nearly all of these radicals looked to Paine as their spiritual leader and to Thomas Jefferson as their political champion. They held egalitarian, anti-federalist values and promoted an extreme form of participatory democracy that found a niche in the radical wing of Jefferson's Republican Party. Their divided views on slavery, however, reveal that democratic republicanism was unable to cope with the realities of that institution.

As political activists during the 1790s, they proved crucial to Jefferson's 1800 presidential victory; then, after his views moderated and their influence waned, many repatriated, others drifted into anonymity, and a few managed to find success in the New World.

Although many of these men are known to us through other histories, their influence as a group has never before been so closely examined. Durey persuasively demonstrates that the intellectual ferment in Britain did indeed have tremendous influence on American politics. His account of that influence sheds considerable light on transatlantic political history and differences in religious, political, and economic freedoms.

Skillfully balancing a large cast of characters, Transatlantic Radicals depicts the diversity of their experiences and shows how crucial these reluctant emigres were to shaping our republic in its formative years.

Customer Reviews:

Not easy reading but great study.......2003-01-01

Among the final groups of immigrants to come to American shores and face the prospect of acculturation during America's early history were radical political refugees from the British Isles. These exiles fled jail, impending execution, or banishment as a result of their military, political or social activities in England, Scotland or Ireland, and are described in Michael Durey's comprehensive study "Transatlantic Radicals and the Early American Republic." "Many radicals," Durey states, "experienced severe culture shock in the first months after their arrival." (176) and had to adjust to the reality that naïve images they had of America before fleeing their homeland were often untrue. For many, he suggests, coming to America meant treading a difficult path, politically and socially, which eventually led to marginalization. These men had to find work quickly, and many became teachers and newspapermen in the process of adjusting to new lives. Durey concludes that a large number of refugees began fresh careers in "one general area, the creation and dissemination of knowledge, cultural, political, pedagogical, and scientific." (200) Those of religious faith in the former lands latched on to their church in America as a way of gaining a foothold and acclimating to a new country. The most profound divergence of acculturation took place among the radicals with regard to slavery, Durey finds. Most if not all exiles had been anti-slavery while in Britain and Ireland; "no such unanimity can be found in their reactions to slavery after their emigration," for as a practical problem, the issue divided them once in the United States. (289) "The acculturation of the exiles to the regions in which they settled," he concludes, played a large role in how the émigrés responded to the abolition question, i.e., they adopted the predominat views of the states in which they settled. (283.)
It is notable that with the possible exception of the late 18th century radical émigrés from the British Isles, no group of immigrants discussed above came upon these shores to a veritable Eden, or an unoccupied, virgin land waiting to be conquered or "developed." Seventeenth century Englishmen encountered native tribes upon arrival in America; slaves faced a rigid, white-mastered plantation system firmly established. Congregation members in Puritan New England reacted to an entrenched, privileged clergy; Ulster Scots faced hostile frontier natives and more established, "English-like" elites of the settled East. These encounters with predecessors necessitated acculturation by those peoples who came to America, willingly, reluctantly or against their will. Some of these groups triumphed-rich sugar planters, Virginia land speculators-while others struggled to survive-slaves, dirt poor Scotch-Irish on the frontier, and political radicals. Yet regardless of their destinies, each of these groups underwent the necessary and inevitable process of change-adaptation-which profoundly shaped their lives and societies in ways in their new land, and helped to create what we call American culture today.

Defining Nations: Immigrants and Citizens in Early Modern Spain and Spanish America

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Defining Nations: Immigrants and Citizens in Early Modern Spain and Spanish America
Tamar Herzog
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300092539

Book Description

In this book Tamar Herzog explores the emergence of a specifically Spanish concept of community in both Spain and Spanish America in the eighteenth century. Challenging the assumption that communities were the natural result of common factors such as language or religion, or that they were artificially imagined, Herzog reexamines early modern categories of belonging. She argues that the distinction between those who were Spaniards and those who were foreigners came about as local communities distinguished between immigrants who were judged to be willing to take on the rights and duties of membership in that community and those who were not.

Watch the Stars Come Out (A Puffin Unicorn)

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Immigration - Memories from the 1880s
A trip to America

Watch the Stars Come Out (A Puffin Unicorn)
Riki Levinson
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140555064

Customer Reviews:

Immigration - Memories from the 1880s.......2006-12-19

"Watch the Stars Come Out" by Riki Levinson tells one story of immigration.

How did all of we in America get here? Some came long ago, and became what we know as Indians. Others came on the Mayflower, or up through Mexico. Many came in the late 1800s, through the very early 1900s, with a tremendous wave of European immigrants. This is the story of one European family.

The story begins as the ship approaches the Statue of Liberty. After a tough journey, the family reaches NYC, and works its way toward their new home, a German-Jewish neighborhood on Hester Street.

The story is told from the grandmother who made the trip as a little girl, to a young girl who looks much like her. The memories help the little girl feel connected to her grandmother, and to feel a little closer to an experience her family knew.

She sees the stars, just as her grandmother saw the stars, and realizes life is good.

The drawings are colored pencil, with a great many people, faces, and details. The story misses names. The brother is called "Brother" making a personal and cultural exchange challenging for the reader. No one has a name. The writing is clean, well-edited for the early grade school set.

I fully recommend "Watch the Stars Come Out" by Riki Levinson.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

A trip to America.......2002-10-20

Children enjoy this story about two young immigrants coming to America. A young girl tells how she and brother cross the ocean by ship alone, to meet their parents who already live in New York. She describes the long journey's ups and downs, and also the stop at Ellis Island for a medical check-up. Finally they are reunited with their parents, who now live in a "palace!" It's great for kids just learning about immigrants, or maybe about how your family came to America. The pictures are wistful and dreamy. Your 7-9 year old will like it!

Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America (Early America: History, Context, Culture)

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Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America (Early America: History, Context, Culture)
A. G. Roeber
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801859689

Book Description

In Palatines, Liberty, and Property A. G. Roeber explains why so many Germans, when they faced critical choices in 1776, became active supporters of the patriot cause. Employing a variety of German-language sources and and following all the major German migration streams, Roeber explores German conceptions of personal and public property in the context of cultural and religious beliefs, village life, and family concerns. Co-winner of the John H. Dunning Prize from the American Historical Association, Roeber's study of German-American settlements and their ideas about liberty and property provides an unprecedented view of how non-English culture and beliefs made their way from Europe to America.

"The most thoughtful and comprehensive study ever attempted of the German migration to eighteenth-century America and how it affected and was affected by the Revolution. Roeber's research on German law and patterns of landholding has no parallel in English-language scholarship. This is the one book that everyone should read who wishes to understand the scope and significance of the first massive voluntary migration of non-English speaking settlers to British North America."--John M. Murrin, Princeton University

Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History (Asian American History and Culture)

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Asian American Studies

Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History (Asian American History and Culture)

Manufacturer: Temple University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1566399637

Book Description

As a book about cultural memory and retrieval, this collection of essays asks readers to reconsider who represents Asian America and what constitutes its history. Defining the early period as spanning the nineteenth century and the 1960s, the original essays here speak to the difficulty of recovering a past that was largely unrecorded as well as understanding the varied experiences of peoples of Asian descent. Interdisciplinary in approach, the essays address the Asian American individuals and communities that have been omitted from "official" histories; trace the roots of persistent racial stereotypes and myths; and retrieve artistic production that raises vexed questions of what counts as "art" or as Asian American. By reconsidering the political, cultural, and material history written in the last three decades, this volume contributes to a new understanding of Asian America's past and relationship to the present.

Customer Reviews:

Asian American Studies.......2007-07-23

This book was quite interesting though the class at the university was more about theories and politics than I had liked. The stories and experiences that the people share in this book were truly touching and intriguing.

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Coming To America
your grandparents' story
Proud to be an American
Applause for Annushka!
A young woman of character

Annushka's Voyage
Edith Tarbescu
Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 039564366X

Book Description

Set at the turn of the century, this sensitively told story, based on the true story of the author's own mother's journey to America, follows the journey of two young sisters as they travel from their small village in Russia to join their papa in New York. In her lively text, Edith Tarbescu communicates the hopes and fears of the two young immigrants. Expressive illustrations capture the many extraordinary moments of the sisters' transatlantic journey including their glorious reunion with Papa, made possible with the help of a pair of special Sabbath candlesticks.

Customer Reviews:

Coming To America.......2005-05-05

Coming to America is the theme for ANNUSHKA'S VOYAGE authored by Edith
Tarbescu and illustrated by Lydia Dabcovich. It focuses on the life
story of the author's mother.

The plot is a simple one. Anya (nicknamed Annushka by her grandfather)
and Tanya, two little sisters are waiting with trepidation for the
steerage tickets that will take them from pogrom torn Russia to their
father in America. Supposedly their life will be good in America,
however, they must leave behind their grandparents.

The author is successful in penning credible characters. I
particularly liked the following sentence uttered by the thirteen year
old Annushka: "I could tell grandma was sad, so I hugged her and said:
I'll write every day and draw funny pictures..." expressing her mixed
feelings of sadness and happiness at the moment of departure.

Ms Tarbescu has captured the feelings of anxiety, separation and
reunion with great simplicity without falling into over
sentimentality. One can only imagine the fear and loneliness of two
little girls traveling by themselves, let alone crossing an ocean and
arriving at the processing melée of Ellis Island.

Hope for a bright future never fades. Annushka is the big sister who
keeps up the necessary courage for herself and her little sister, with
the help of the Sabbath candles given to them by their grand mother.

The illustrations by Lydia Dabcovich are true to the text. Ink lines
emphasize the expressive drawings and white gouache provides the right
highlights in simple strokes. The illustrator is a master of
perspective. The illustration on p.18 when the immigrants on the boat
get their first sighting of Ellis Island is very striking. The little
girls' expressions are precious throughout the book as well as the
faces of the grandparents and the father.

ANNUSHKA'S VOYAGE is a homage to the people who were left behind in
Russia, surrounded by the dangers of pogroms and anti-Semitism and to
the new immigrants. It is a charming telling of an immigrant
experience and is a must read for people of all ages.

Lily Azerad-Goldman, Reviewer for Bookpleasures.com

your grandparents' story.......2005-03-29

Rebeccasreads highly recommends ANNUSHKA'S VOYAGE as a riveting tale, simply told with fascinating illustrations by Lydia Dabcovich, that all immigrants & their children can relate to.

In the Author's Note, Edith Tarbescue recounts the reasons why her mother made that journey to America from their little Russian village, so ANNUSHKA'S VOYAGE is a true story, one millions of people from all over the world have made looking for a better, freer life, me among them.

Proud to be an American.......2001-10-19

Patriotism, a love for the new land, the thrill of seeing The Statue of Liberty for the first time, etc. are all stirred in this warm tale. I thought of my own Irish ancestors who came here about 50 years before the author's mother and aunt came. Her family is Jewish. Mine is Christian. We are all Americans.
I highly recommend using this book in classrooms followed by singing songs such as "I'm Proud to be an American." In spite of our problems, at least we know we are free. Let's help children appreciate that freedom and understand the need for responsible behavior.

Applause for Annushka!.......2000-09-24

ANNUSHKA'S VOYAGE A Children's Picture Book, Ages 4 - 8 Written by Edith Tarbescu Illustrated by Lydia Dabcovich Clarion Books, 1998 ISBN No. 0-395-64366-X, 32 Pages, $15.00

Anya (Annushka) and her little sister Tanya live with their grandparents in Russia. Each day, they work with their grandparents on the farm and await news from their father in America.

Papa's letter was filled with funny pictures. There were drawingsof the doll factory where he worked and of the pigeons on his roof.

He wrote, "People say the streets here are paved with gold. I am saving money to buy steamship tickes for Anya and Tanya."

That's when Tanya started crying. "First Mama died and went to heaven. Then Papa left for America."

I put my arms around her and wiped away her tears. "He'll send for us soon, you'll see."

Early each morning, even before it was light, we worked around the farm. In the afternoons we helped Grandma make puddings and potato pancakes. Before bed we had Hebrew lessons with Grandpa. And we waited.

After more than a year, two steamship tickets came in the mail with a letter from Papa telling us he'd meet us in New York.

Anya and Tanya soon travel from the old country in Russia toward the promise of a new life in America. Although they must leave their Grandparents and the life they know behind, they carry with them the clothes on their back, a pair of candlesticks---family heirlooms, a book of Russian fairy tales and a ragdoll.

Custom and tradition are woven through this wonderful tale of two young Jewish emigrants who go off to America alone, first crossing Europe on a train to Holland and then sailing toward "the land of opportunity" in a gigantic steamship. Through Annushka, her hopes and fears, this heartwarming story offers amazing insight into emigrant passage to America.

"As soon as we got off the train, we were sent to a big building to be examined by doctors. There were so many people speaking so many different languages."

"We kept going down, down, down, until we reached the basement of the ship. It was dark and scary, especially with the engines running."

In ANNUSHKA'S VOYAGE, author Edie Tarbescu effectively relates to children the important story of American Immigration in the late 1800s. Mixed with both adventure and history, Annushka's story is a delightful read. Lydia Dabcovich's expressive illustrations and the author's historical note make this story come alive. Although this book stands on its own, I must point out that it is an essential read for anyone (adults and children, alike) who is fortunate enough to learn about or visit the Statue of Liberty and/or pass through the Ellis Island gates. Writers Moon reViews (WritersMoon@aol.com) P.O. Box 182, Nesconset, NY 11767-0182 Copyright (c) 2000 Lynne Remick (LynnRemick@aol.com) Reprinted with permission from Lynne Remick =============================================

A young woman of character.......2000-04-06

I've enjoyed reading this warm story many times to students. It reflects family values of love, trust, faith (including religious faith) and it also shows girls a role model of sensitivity, caring, and true female strength. In these days of Barbie dolls and warrior princeses, girls need this experience with a young woman who has realistic strength and love.

Missouri Irish, the original history of the Irish in Missouri, Irish Settlers on the American Frontier (Irish West of the Mississippi)

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First of its kind

Missouri Irish, the original history of the Irish in Missouri, Irish Settlers on the American Frontier (Irish West of the Mississippi)
Michael C. O'Laughlin
Manufacturer: Irish Genealogical Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

The story of the Irish in Missouri, including St. Louis, Kansas City, The Irish Wilderness and Trails West, from the earliest times to current day. Over 50 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

First of its kind.......2007-07-21

This was the first book ever published on the Irish in Missouri (1984). It covers the entire state, but the main focus is on Kansas City, St. Louis, and the Irish Wilderness. This book is great for historians and for genealogists. There is a new edition in soft cover with added and updated pages (264 pages), The original title was "Irish Settlers on the American Frontier". The title of the new edition is Missouri Irish and is just now being released.

From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers

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Worth three and a half stars, but not easy reading.

From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers
Allan Kulikoff
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807848824
Release Date: 2000-10-25

Book Description

With this book, Allan Kulikoff offers a sweeping new interpretation of the origins and development of the small farm economy in Britain's mainland American colonies. Examining the lives of farmers and their families, he tells the story of immigration to the colonies, traces patterns of settlement, analyzes the growth of markets, and assesses the impact of the Revolution on small farm society.

Beginning with the dispossession of the peasantry in early modern England, Kulikoff follows the immigrants across the Atlantic to explore how they reacted to a hostile new environment and its Indian inhabitants. He discusses how colonists secured land, built farms, and bequeathed those farms to their children. Emphasizing commodity markets in early America, Kulikoff shows that without British demand for the colonists' crops, settlement could not have begun at all. Most important, he explores the destruction caused during the American Revolution, showing how the war thrust farmers into subsistence production and how they only gradually regained their prewar prosperity.

Customer Reviews:

Worth three and a half stars, but not easy reading........2001-03-22

For nearly forty years, historians have concentrated their attention on the social history of the common people. In American historiography in particular, remarkable progress has been made in the history of slaves, industrial workers and the aboriginal inhabitants of the continent. But one group of people has not been treated with the prominence they deserve, and that is the rural majority of the first century and a half of the nation's existence. 95% of the United States was rural in 1776, and when you exclude the quarter that was slave and aboriginal, you have 70% that consisted of country people and their families, most of whom had or would eventually own land. It is clear that this high level of economic independence was crucial to the development of American democracy. Allan Kulikoff's book is the first of a multi-volume series that will examine the history of the American yeomen. Kulikoff concentrates on how farmers sought a degree of independence and security from the capitalist market. "Capitalist transformation, then, stands at the center of our story." In contrast to other historians Kulikoff argues that capitalism, crucially defined as a system of wage labor, "had not yet reached our shores as late as the American Revolution."

The result is a synthesis of the Colonial farmer to the American Revolution based on amazingly extensive reading of the secondary literature. This has to be the first book where the bibliography (104 pages) is longer than the endnotes (73 pages), and Kulikoff seems to have read every scholarly article on rural history. However, the actual connection between yeomanry and the rise of democracy is slated for another volume, as is their eventual demise. What we have here is a book that discusses the economics changes that lead the British and later the Germans to move to America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We have a chapter on how emigration took place, how the new immigrants met and eventually conquered the Indians, how they expanded up until 1776 and how they set up households and fixed themselves in relations to markets. Crucial to Kulikoff's account is how enclosure and other acts against the peasantry encouraged mass migration. Most migrants in fact moved within Europe (either to Ulster or to Eastern Europe), but enough moved to the Western hemisphere to successfully conquer it.

All this is very thorough and thoughtful but it is not easy reading. One problem is that Kulikoff abbreviates the books he is citing in his notes, so not only do you have to turn from your reading to the endnotes(which is always irritating), but then you often have to move from the endnotes to the bibliography. I am aware that many readers have a philistine prejudice against footnotes, but since this is not a book for a general audience their opinions should be ignored. Because of the structural focus of Kulikoff's work, the human element is somewhat downplayed in this book. Despite talking about such subjects as the dispossession of the British peasantry, war and atrocities against the Indians, the beating of wives and the maltreatment of servants, Kulikoff writes about these subjects in a style with the life bleached out of it. The contrast with Thompson and Genovese is striking. One might cruelly say that there is much here about demography, but little actual sex, much about diet as an ecological concept but little about food. While Kulikoff is right to discuss the ill-treatment of servants, the subordination of women and the first shoots of the weeds of a rural proletariat, more could have been said about the general trends in the standard of living, especially compared to Britain. Moreover what scholarly differences Kulikoff has are confined to brief comments in the endnotes, so Kulikoff's own voice is blurred. The result is that it is not clear to the reader that Kulikoff is saying something new. As such his emphasis that farmers were not simply small scale capitalists and that landownership rates rose as high as 90% in many areas of America is not made as forcefully as it could be. Only the last chapter, actually the epilogue, does Kulikoff come to life as he portrays a new picture of the American Revolution as a violent conflict, with various armies looting and pillaging both sides. There was mass emigration and hundreds were killed, indeed murdered, in Indian wars alone. (One remembers in particular the massacre of 90 peaceful praying Moravian Delawares who were slaughtered by frontier militia as they sang hymns and prayed.) Given the way American conservatives have prided themselves on their "successful" revolution in contrast to the French, it is very useful to learn that the per-capital income dropped more than 40% during the decade of revolution and had not returned to its pre-war level thirty years later. One can only wait for the next volume.

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