Strangers Within the Realm - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by Bernard Bailyn & Philip D Morgan (Paperback)

About the Book

Strangers Within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire

Book Synopsis

Shedding new light on British expansion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this collection of essays examines how the first British Empire was received and shaped by its subject peoples in Scotland, Ireland, North America, and the Caribbean.

An introduction surveys British imperial historiography and provides a context for the volume as a whole. The essays focus on specific ethnic groups -- Native Americans, African-Americans, Scotch-Irish, and Dutch and Germans -- and their relations with the British, as well as on the effects of British expansion in particular regions -- Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the West Indies. A conclusion assesses the impact of the North American colonies on British society and politics.

Taken together, these essays represent a new kind of imperial history -- one that portrays imperial expansion as a dynamic process in which the oulying areas, not only the English center, played an important role in the development and character of the Empire. The collection interpets imperial history broadly, examining it from the perspective of common folk as well as elites and discussing the clash of cultures in addition to political disputes. Finally, by examining shifting and multiple frontiers and by drawing parallels between outlying provinces, these essays move us closer to a truly integrated story that links the diverse ethnic experiences of the first British Empire.

The contributors are Bernard Bailyn, Philip D. Morgan, Nicholas Canny, Eric Richards, James H. Merrell, A. G. Roeber, Maldwyn A. Jones, Michael Craton, J. M. Bumsted, and Jacob M. Price.

Review Quotes

[A] richly textured, sophisticated analysis of the connections and conflicts. . . between the disparate peoples of the first British Empire.

John Brewer, Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

ÝA¨ richly textured, sophisticated analysis of the connections and conflicts. . . between the disparate peoples of the first British Empire.

John Brewer, Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

A powerful corrective to a long tradition of Anglocentric historiography.

Patricia U. Bonomi, New York University

This is a rare collection of essays.

James Walvin, University of York

"[A] richly textured, sophisticated analysis of the connections and conflicts. . . between the disparate peoples of the first British Empire.

John Brewer, Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Studies, University of California, Los Angeles"

"A powerful corrective to a long tradition of Anglocentric historiography.

Patricia U. Bonomi, New York University"

"This is a rare collection of essays.

James Walvin, University of York"

A notable achievement of both editors and contributors.

"English Historical Review"

About the Author

Bernard Bailyn, Adams University Professor at Harvard University, is author of numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution. Philip D. Morgan, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, is author of Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry.