A Companion to Colonial America consists of twenty-three original essays by expert historians on the key issues and topics in American colonial history. Each essay surveys the scholarship and prevailing interpretations in these key areas, discussing the differing arguments and assessing their merits.
This authoritative and well produced volume provides an overview of the state of play in the ever expanding field of colonial American history. This valuable reference work provides a comprehensive and thought provoking entree into a sophisticated field of historical enquiry. The Journal of the Historical Association
About the Contributors vii
Introduction x
1 Pre-Contact: The Evidence from Archaeology 1
David G. Anderson and Marvin T. Smith
2 The Origins of Transatlantic Colonization 25
Carole Shammas
3 Ecology 44
John Brooke
4 Migration and Settlement 76
Ned Landsman
5 Empire 99
Richard R. Johnson
6 Indian History During the English Colonial Era 118
James H. Merrell
7 African Americans 138
Philip D. Morgan
8 Economy 172
Margaret Newell
9 Women and Gender 194
Carol Karlsen
10 Children and Parents 236
Holly Brewer
11 Class 259
Greg Nobles
12 Colonial Politics 288
Alan Tully
13 Regionalism 311
Michael Zuckerman
14 Consumption 334
Cary Carson
15 Religion 366
Marilyn Westerkamp
16 Secular Culture in Search of an Early American Enlightenment 389
Darren Staloff
17 Borderlands 408
Daniel H. Usner, Jr.
18 Comparisons: The Caribbean 425
Verene Shepherd and Carleen Payne
19 Comparisons: New Spain 451
Robert Ferry
20 Comparisons: New France 469
Allan Greer
21 Comparisons: Atlantic Canada 489
Peter Pope
22 Causes of the American Revolutions 508
Sylvia Frey
23 Postscript: Large Questions in a Very Large Place 530
Edward Countryman
Index 541