
The Brittle Thread of Life
Backcountry People Make a Place for Themselves in Early America
Mark Carlson Williams(Author)
Yale University Press
Will be published approx. on 14. August 2009
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-300-13922-8 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
"A deeply researched, vivid and absorbing account of the truculently independent people of New England's backcountry and their place in the history of the region and the nation."-Keith Wrightson, Yale University -- Keith Wrightson "In this finely-crafted comparative study of Granby, Connecticut, and Ashfield, Massachusetts, Mark Williams recounts the struggles of eighteenth-century settlers on the upland frontier of the Connecticut River Valley. The Brittle Thread of Life recalls classic New England town studies of the 1970s, and vividly conveys struggles over land and religion, as well as local, colony, and state-wide politics from the late seventeenth-century to the beginning of the republic."-Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut -- Richard D. BrownMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
15 b-w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
620 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-13922-8 (9780300139228)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2009
1st Edition
Yale University Press
€66.95
Available for download
Person
Mark Williams teaches history at the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut.