DOC From Fields of Fire and Glory: Letters of the Civil War by Rod Gragg in History

Description

In this sweeping analysis of colonialism and its legacies; John Wood Sweet explores how the ongoing interaction of conquered Indians; English settlers; and enslaved Africans in New England produced a closely interwoven; though radically divided; society. The coming together of these diverse peoples profoundly shaped the character of colonial New England; the meanings of the Revolution in the North; and the making of American democracy writ large.Critically engaged with current debates about the dynamics of culture; racial identity; and postcolonial politics; this innovative and intellectually capacious work is grounded in a remarkable array of evidence. What emerges from this analysis of colonial and early national censuses; newspapers; diaries; letters; court records; printed works; and visual images are the dramatic confrontations and subtle negotiations by which Indians; Africans; and Anglo-Americans defined their respective places in early New England. Citizenship; as Sweet reveals; was defined in meeting houses as well as in courthouses; in bedrooms as well as on battlefields; in land disputes as well as on streets. Bodies Politic reveals how the legacy of colonialism shaped the emergence of the nineteenth-century North and continues; even to this day; to shape all our lives.