The Brittle Thread of Life : Backcountry People Make a Place for Themselves in Early America
Overview
The colonists who settled the backcountry in eighteenth-century New England were recruited from the social fringe, people who were desperate for land, autonomy, and respectability and who were willing to make a hard living in a rugged environment.
Mark Williams' microhistorical approach gives voice to the settlers, proprietors, and officials of the small colonial settlements that became Granby, Connecticut, and Ashfield, Massachusetts. These people--often disrespectful, disorderly, presumptuous, insistent, and defiant--were drawn to the ideology of the Revolution in the 1760s and 1770s that stressed equality, independence, and property rights. The backcountry settlers pushed the emerging nation's political culture in a more radical direction than many of their leaders or the Founding Fathers preferred and helped put a democratic imprint on the new nation. This accessibly written book will resonate with all those interested in the social and political relationships of early America.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780300139228
- ISBN-10: 0300139225
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publish Date: August 2009
- Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.25 pounds
- Page Count: 288
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