Adapting to a New World - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by James Horn (Paperback)

About the Book

Adapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake

Book Synopsis

Often compared unfavorably with colonial New England, the early Chesapeake has been portrayed as irreligious, unstable, and violent. In this important new study, James Horn challenges this conventional view and looks across the Atlantic to assess the enduring influence of English attitudes, values, and behavior on the social and cultural evolution of the early Chesapeake. Using detailed local and regional studies to compare everyday life in English provincial society and the emergent societies of the Chesapeake Bay, Horn provides a richly textured picture of the immigrants' Old World backgrounds and their adjustment to life in America. Until the end of the seventeenth century, most settlers in Virginia and Maryland were born and raised in England, a factor of enormous consequence for social development in the two colonies. By stressing the vital social and cultural connections between England and the Chesapeake during this period, Horn places the development of early America in the context of a vibrant Anglophone transatlantic world and suggests a fundamental reinterpretation of New World society.

From the Back Cover

Often compared unfavorably with colonial New England, the early Chesapeake has been portrayed as irreligious, unstable, and violent. In this important study, James Horn challenges this conventional view and looks across the Atlantic to assess the enduring influence of English attitudes, values, and behavior on the social and cultural evolution of the early Chesapeake.

Review Quotes

James Horn s excellent history of English society in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake breathes new life into a historiography.

"Journal of Southern History"

James Horn 's excellent history of English society in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake breathes new life into a historiography.

"Journal of Southern History"

James Horn_s excellent history of English society in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake breathes new life into a historiography.

"Journal of Southern History"

[A] deeply researched, detailed, and nuanced portrait of the Chesapeake in the seventeenth century.

"Virginia Magazine of History and Biography"

James Horna[s excellent history of English society in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake breathes new life into a historiography.

"Journal of Southern History"

ÝA¨ deeply researched, detailed, and nuanced portrait of the Chesapeake in the seventeenth century.

"Virginia Magazine of History and Biography"

ÝA¨n important book: a synthesis of a generation's study of the 17th-century Chesapeake world fused with his own analytic contributions.

"London Review of Books"

A work of exceptional breadth, extensive research and reading, and skillful analysis.

"William and Mary Quarterly"

James Horns excellent history of English society in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake breathes new life into a historiography.

"Journal of Southern History"

"[A] deeply researched, detailed, and nuanced portrait of the Chesapeake in the seventeenth century.

"Virginia Magazine of History and Biography""

"A work of exceptional breadth, extensive research and reading, and skillful analysis.

"William and Mary Quarterly""

[A]n important book: a synthesis of a generation's study of the 17th-century Chesapeake world fused with his own analytic contributions.

"London Review of Books"

A splendid volume.

"Journal of American History"

James HornUs excellent history of English society in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake breathes new life into a historiography.

"Journal of Southern History"

About the Author

James Horn is director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library in Colonial Williamsburg.