About this item
Highlights
- Integrating sophisticated demographic techniques with clearly written narrative, this pioneering book (first published in 1976) explores the complex social and economic life of a major colonial city.
- About the Author: Thomas J. Archdeacon is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- 200 Pages
- History, United States
Description
About the Book
Integrating sophisticated demographic techniques with clearly written narrative, this pioneering book explores the complex social and economic life of a major colonial city.
Book Synopsis
Integrating sophisticated demographic techniques with clearly written narrative, this pioneering book (first published in 1976) explores the complex social and economic life of a major colonial city. New York City was a vital part of the middle colonies and may hold the key to the origins of political democracy in America. Family histories, public records of births, marriages, and assessments, and records of business transactions and poll lists are among the rich sources Thomas J. Archdeacon uses to determine the impact of the English conquest on the city of New York. Among his concerns are the changing relationships between the Dutch and the English, the distribution of wealth and the role of commerce in the city, and the part played by ethnic and religious heritage in provincial politics.
Review Quotes
New York City, 1664-1710 is important for a variety of reasons. This is ethnic history with a difference. Archdeacon traces the discomfiture of the Dutch confronted with the English conquest of 1664. He reveals how the English immigrants and later their allies, the Huguenots, came to dominate the trade of a city grown to about six thousand people by 1710, its offices of local government, and its best residential areas. This process is examined against what was for the original inhabitants a bewildering background of political change.
-- "Journal of American Studies"About the Author
Thomas J. Archdeacon is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Becoming American: An Ethnic History and Correlation and Regression Analysis: A Historian's Guide.