Hedrick Smith has done what we all wish we could do: he has gone to Russia and spoken to the people. Over steaming samovars; in cramped flats; and on dirt-floors; he has spoken to peasants and bureaucrats; artists and officials. He has studied their customs and their governments and shares his fascinating insights and fresh perspectives with us.
#1382862 in Books 2014-02-04Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.41 x .99 x 6.25l; 1.23 #File Name: 0812245938272 pages
Review
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful. transients and respectable sojourners in late colonial BostonBy hmf22Contrary to what one might expect; this is not a book about poverty and the treatment of the poor in colonial Boston; but rather a book about the transient: the numerous men; women; and children; white; black; and Indian; Irish; French Canadian; and other; who passed through Boston in the 1760s and were duly warned by one of the town officials; Robert Love; appointed to monitor transients. Dayton and Salinger argue that "warning out" was a bureaucratic practice designed to assign responsibility for poor relief; but not necessarily to discourage strangers from visiting or residing in Boston--and indeed; the overwhelming majority of those who were warned were "respectable" people who had come to Boston to work; pursue apprenticeships; or stay with relatives. The authors devote one chapter to transients in the conventional sense--beggars; alms seekers; the physically and mentally infirm; and the drunk and disorderly--but the main focus of the book is on "sojourners of the respectable sort." There are some excellent illustrations; notably a pair of maps showing the places of origin of those who were warned (pp. 77-78). Love; himself an Irish immigrant who succeeded in putting down roots in Boston; cuts an engaging figure with his obsessive note taking and extraordinary memory for faces. Excellent insights into the texture of eighteenth-century Boston society.
