Gloria Main...offers a magisterial analysis of colonial New England
society, literally from the ground up. Beginning with the region's
environment, she draws on a vast array of studies and her own
powerful research skills to paint an authoritative portrait of the
struggles of daily life for colonists and Native Americans. For
both groups, the family was the basic organizing unit of society.
By focusing on family life, the author finds the key to
understanding the society, culture, and economy of colonial New
England...A rewarding read...["Peoples of a Spacious Land"]
offer[s] readers a rich understanding of the society that played
such a crucial role in the making of the United States.--Evan
Haefeli"Washington Times" (10/14/2001)
Main...has written a fine book about family life in early New
England that joins a long list of distinguished studies on the
topic. Her thorough account of these studies grounds her own work,
a sophisticated addition that looks atsexuality, courtship,
marriage, childbirth, child rearing, childhood itself, old age, and
other related topics. What's different, however, is that Main has
woven in descriptions of Native American family life, which she
contrasts toEnglish practice, thus augmenting the usual historical
sources with anthropological research. Generations of historians
have shunned comparison as an organizing technique, but Main uses
it here to great effect, which makes for good history as well as
good general reading...This skilled study is nevertheless a
graceful, scholarly book. Recommended for large public and all
academic libraries.--Bonnie Collier"Library Journal"
(08/01/2001)
Main's book depicts the New England family as an engine of growth
that generated a multitude of industrious farmers and frugal
artisans. Collectively, the New Englanders overcame their
geographic handicap of settling a region with comparatively low
agricultural yields...This is a thought-provoking, innovative work
that deserves to be widely read by students of early American
history. Immaculately produced by Harvard University Press, Main's
findings will influence the research agendas of scholars working on
colonial New England for some time to come.--S. D. Smith"Economic
History Review" (08/01/2002)
findings will influence the research agendas of scholars working on
colonial New England for some time to come.
role in the making of the United States.
which makes for good history as well as good general reading...This
skilled study is nevertheless a graceful, scholarly book.
Recommended for large public and all academic libraries.
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