4 comments about New England Court Records: A Research Guide for Genealogists And Historians.

1. It is so well organized, it will be handy for many future projects. I am impressed with its depth of coverage and its human tone with what could be an unfriendly presentation. Thanks immensely for putting this reference into the hands of those of us scrambling for answers to our New England genealogical puzzles.



2. Rapaport, a former trial lawyer, has worked for years as a legal practitioner with court records. This thorough and important work on a little known subject, outside the legal profession, will become a standard for genealogists and historians. For the first time, we have an extensive but readable guide to the intricacies of the often surprising riches found in court records. She provides an overview of the American legal system, the specifics of New England courts, types of court records, and where to look for them in each of the states, county by county.
   
   This book is a must-purchase for any serious genealogical library, personal or professional.



3. 
   This is a timely and wonderful reference work. For those interested in uncovering information about seventeenth-century New England ancestors, this is an excellent resource guide. As many family researchers know, court records for the 1600s are one of three important sources of genealogical information, the others being vital records(town and church)and wills. The early settlers were litigious, being able to file their complaints easily and cheaply in the courts, without lawyers. Hence, there is a wealth of family information in these court files -- often highly amusing.



4. Very highly recommended to all genealogy researchers, whether novice or expert, New England Court Records: A Research Guide For Genealogists And Historians by Diane Rapaport (former trial lawyer with a B.A. in History and a J.D. degree in Law) is an in-depth 470-page collective study of the locations and contributions of New England's facilities and resources which would historians and genealogical researchers to better understand the history and citizenship of New England. Introducing the reader to a detailed description of each facility, along with contact and location information, and employing an easy-to-use format exploring a state, county, and city/township locator reference ideal. A major work that could well serve as a template for other regions of the country, New England Court Records is a thoroughly "user friendly" reference ideal for the purposes of genealogists and local historians researching the New England area.

3 comments about Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American Culture.

1. Greene is on a mission to show that the South (especially the Chesapeake) represents the "normative" model of American development-not the New England model. To do so, he decries the standard "declension" model, based on the history of Puritan New England, and produces a "developmental" model that he proves was normative for all British New World colonies--here New England represents the exception, not the rule. He seeks to analyze three points. First, to analyze the assumptions that have emphasized the preeminence or normative character of the Orthodox Puritan colonies of New England in the early modern social development and formation of American culture. Second, to evaluate and compare among the experiences of other societies in the early modern British Empire and to formulate a model of colonial social development that made be more broadly applicable than the heretofore used declension model of British colonial history. Finally, to delineate the process by which the general American culture began to emerge out of several regional cultures during the century after 1660 and identifying the most important elements in that emerging culture. Colonial historians have used the declension model to explain the early experiences of the Orthodox European colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut. Greene proposes a developmental model which looks at historical change in new societies as a movement from the simple to the complex. The Chesapeake, being the oldest settle the region, experienced this model first and the others followed - except the New England region, which was atypical from all other British colonies. Green does not discuss Native Americans, and only superficially covers slaves. However, he admits to pursuing his argument with three assumptions: 1) the focus of the book is upon social development and religious, political, and economic developments are considered only as far as their social dimensions are concerned; 2) focus is upon European and African immigrants and their descendants - excludes Native Americans; and 3) attempts to avoid the "idol of origins" which assumes how an area appeared later in time was equivalent to how it began (concerns the subject specially of slavery in the South). An excellent book for any student of American history, it is well written and thoroughly researched. It discusses the major historians and arguments concerning colonial American history.



2. In Pursuits of Happiness, Jack Greene's objective is to examine the social development and economic change in Great Britain's colonies from 1660 to 1760, and to observe the development of American culture emerging at the end of the American Revolution. He uses an overarching, macro-historical framework in which he looks at the British colonies in the Caribbean, mainland North America and Ireland and classifies each in to one of two models: a developmental pattern represented most clearly by the Chesapeake region, and a declension pattern, exemplified exclusively by the New England colonies "around which much British colonial history has been organized." (xi) Greene's developmental model is one in which settlements move from loosely organized, primitive ventures to economically highly elaborated, institutionally stable and socially mature provinces; in other words, they become "more settled, cohesive, and coherent." (81) He focuses almost exclusively upon refuting the conviction that New England was representative of British pre-Revolutionary colonization attempts, and maintains instead that the Chesapeake region was not only far more similar to early modern Britain than was New England, but that every other colony (including Ireland) mirrored the Chesapeake settlements. Although he offers a concluding chapter in which he describes the various mainland settlements as "becoming increasingly alike" (170) as the American Revolution approached, for the most part, Greene's New England is emphatically anomalous in the overall picture of Britain's colonies. To paint this historiographical portrait, however, Greene chooses a selective definition and application of "declension," ignores contradictory evidence, and reaches his foreordained conclusions based on what are obviously rigidly held assumptions. Perhaps it is Greene's relentless determination to debunk the traditional interpretation of early America in which New England is held to be "normative" (5) of Britain's colonial settlement that leads one to question his approach to this question and to cast some doubt as to the credibility of his argument. As one reviewer notes, Greene "resents the central position that New England has held" over the years in colonial historiography and "never relents in his quest for an alternative explanation." While it is of course perfectly legitimate and appropriate to search for such an alternative, Greene's decision to ignore some evidence and patterns that do not fit his model is to a large extent disingenuous. His selective handling of facts, woven into a conclusion so at odds with prior interpretations and so neatly packaged summon forth Professor Robert Berkhofer's admonition: "You should examine the author's main points, how they went about explicating them and the sets of assumptions that made for their works being exactly the way they are." This is not to object to Greene's refusal to conclude that colonial New England is the model for social development and that the Chesapeake is a deviant example of British colonization. Rather, we can look deeper in to Pursuits of Happiness and learn much from what we read and what we do not read, and consider Greene's assumptions and main points as Berkhofer recommends that we do. Greene's desire to see order, stability, and social maturation in the colonies he describes allows him to minimize and dehumanize slavery, and much else that is unpleasant, disorganized or objectionable in Britain's colonial provinces. Institutions and structures to him are aesthetically desirable, meaningful and define a modern society. He looks from the top down. Greene's use of this approach is why we do not "see" people in the book-slaves in particular are missing, but so too are New England farmers, women, American Indians, and others. This lack of human subjects is somewhat ironic, in that Greene's goal was to "formulate a model of social development." (xi, italics mine) Pursuits of Happiness is fundamentally a reactionary survey, aimed squarely at refuting those studies that have emphasized the typicality of the New England experience. Greene assumed preemptively that the Chesapeake was more reflective of early modern Britain, and more typical of her colonies. By emphasizing declension in New England and defining it in his own terms, Greene of course found what he was looking for: a Chesapeake model more modern and developed than New England, one that all other British colonies resembled. Only by ignoring contradictory experiences and discontinuities, as Cronon holds that all narratives do, does Greene succeed in finding his settled, cohesive, and coherent colonies.



3. In erudite and responsible fashion, Greene establishes his thesis by first laying out the nature of the Chesapeake and New England colonies. Virginia, he states, was the result of profit-driven members of The Virginia Company, and therefore a commercial colony from the beginning. It furthermore was an individualist colony and only accepted the idea of a community after realizing it otherwise would not succeed. By contrast, New England was a religious colony wholly devoted to the community, where not until later was any individualism expressed. Having laid that foundation, he then proceeds to criticize the declension model of New England and to propose a developmental model for the Chesapeake.
   
   His criticism of the declension model rests principally in that it assumes a deterioration of New England culture and quality of life. As such, it cannot properly address the demographic and economic changes occurring in those colonies beginning around 1660. Having thus assessed the validity of the declension model, he then proposes his own developmental model for the Chesapeake region. That model states, in essence, that permanent civilization grew out of temporary colonies by virtue of the change from strictly individual, go-it-alone pursuits to the much more practical individual-within-a-greater-community approach. That latter phenomenon, he demonstrates, is a reflection of life and the socioeconomic situation in Great Britain itself, thereby proving that not only does the declension model fail to hold for the Chesapeake colonies, it was never representative of the Old World either.
   
   He then goes on to describe the socioeconomic nature of the colonies in Ireland, the Middle Colonies around New York along with the Lower Southern colonies beneath the Chesapeake, and the island colonies in the Atlantic and Caribbean. In each case, he ultimately asserts their strong similarity to the Chesapeake colonies and the legitimacy of his developmental model theory. In his final chapter, he brings all the colonies together to explain the creation and development of an American society, and the colonial move from separate and distinct colonies to united and similar states.
   
   The style of Greene's argument is very satisfactory; he makes no assumptions, or at least pretends not to, and fully and somewhat repetitively explains how each colony is similar to the Chesapeake and dissimilar to New England. It is constructed, therefore, so the scholarly reader can jump to the colonies of interest to him/her, skip over the others, and still fully understand the argument.
   
   The argument itself is highly intriguing, and well grounded within the evidence he presents. One cannot help but see the merit to what he writes. That said, there are a few points of caution for the academic reader. First, Greene pays no attention whatsoever to Indians, and less attention than he should to slaves. On Indians, he acknowledges as much in his introduction; however, with the exception of Ireland, settler-Indian relations were pivotal to colonial development. What does he have to say of Bacon's Rebellion, for example, or any of a number of such conflicts? What about the fact that the settlers initially survived on Indian-grown corn, later established a considerable trading system, and even acquired land from them? One might also ask about the social development of the Indians themselves. How did colonization affect them? Greene ignores that entirely. Perhaps he considers Indians' happiness irrelevant to the overall American pursuit of happiness. Perhaps it was simply an oversight, or maybe historiography has not progressed so far as to include the Indians. Does that issue or any settler-Indian issues weaken Greene's model? Perhaps not enough to invalidate it (or to enhance it, for that matter), but enough to have merited discussion.
   
   As to slavery, Robert Olwell writes in Masters, Slaves, and Subjects that slaves too had a social structure that changed over time. Yet, Greene says nothing about it. He discusses slavery only as far as it influenced white settlers' social development. Furthermore, the descendents of these slaves still make up a relevant percentage of the American population; thus, one cannot discuss the "formation of American culture" without addressing the slaves. Again, perhaps the social development of blacks would have had no impact on the relevancy of his model; all the same, he still should have considered it.
   
   A second point of caution is his assertion that the wretched civilization in the Chesapeake ultimately brought about the republican virtues inherent in American government. Perhaps, but as New England scholars have long demonstrated, republicanism was intrinsic to Puritan social philosophy, and declension or no, was well-established a full century and a half before the Chesapeake adopted it.
   
   A last point concerns the central argument Stephen Innes makes in his book, Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England; namely, that Puritan philosophy ushered in capitalism. Whereas the Chesapeake adopted repressive measures to stifle the overall economy in favor of elite wealth, New England largely allowed its economy to grow unhindered. Having titled his book "Pursuits of Happiness," Greene utterly fails to discuss the capitalistic nature of the foundation of that happiness: American culture, economy, and government.
   
   Greene tackles an enormous subject and gives it a specific label - his developmental model - that by its very size is certain to have a few holes, most notably the cautions described above. Despite these three points of caution, however, Pursuits of Happiness is an extremely worthwhile book. It lends itself well to discussion of New England declension and colonial development, and certainly, Jack Greene is a historian of established and deserved repute. One may not agree with any or all of the points of his thesis, but even the most devoted student of Bernard Bailyn would do well to consider them.

3 comments about Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England.

1. This book is a collection of trial transcripts, maps, and other documents and information regarding the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The most famous of witch trials, the hysteria is recaptured here for you to sort through yourself. This book is NOT a "story", but a valuable tool for doing your own research on the matter. Fabulous reading, wonderous facts, mysterious information, and education abound. Buy this book today!



2. the story is marvelous and i really did like i



3. Why did the sober New England residents of Salem suddenly find witches in their midst? And why Salem and not, say, Williamsburg? Historians answer questions like these by going to the original documents, and that's exactly what you have here: the original documents, edited into modern English.
   
   Along the way you'll discover conflicts between Salem and Salem Village, a congregation that wasn't allowed to have a church, personal conflicts and jealousy and revenge, and even a hint of a land grab.
   
   But you have to figure out the answers for yourself. All the clues are in your hands. All you have to do is put them together and make sense of them. Later on, you can read Salem Possessed by the same authors and see what professional historians can tease from this data. That was a humbling experience, but I wouldn't have missed doing my own detective work for the world.

1 comments about The Grand Masters of Maine Gardening.

1. The Grand Masters Of Main Gardening: And Some Of Their Disciples by horticultural and gardening expert Jane Lamb reveals and showcases "tips, tricks and techniques" applied by Maine's premier gardeners. Additionally, Lamb includes a veritable compendium of advice drawn from more than twenty years of interviews with Maine's most outstanding gardeners, horticultural pioneers, and landscape architects. Here is a compendium based upon decades of experience in making things grow in Maine soil and with Maine climates. Also included is a fascinating tour through exquisite private gardens, specialized nurseries and popular public gardens. Enhanced with almost seventy impressive full-color photographs, The Grand Masters Of Maine Gardening is a "must" for regional gardeners in the North East, but will also prove to be of immense interest to dedicated horticulturists and gardening enthusiasts anywhere else in the country.

5 comments about J. K. Rowling: New and Revised: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter.

1. Overall this book was a pretty fair source for the basic facts on Miss Rowlings life and career. However, as the book progressed it became very obvious that the author knew very little about the books themselves. He suuggested that owls run gringotts bank, and called cho cang cho chan. As other reviewers have already mentioned he also made a flaw on Miss Rowlings birthday. I know every one is human, therefore prone to flaw, but the lack of editing was noticeable. There was some pretty good pics, and lots off fascinating tid bits, but perhaps could use a bit more editing.



2. All that is in here is what you can find on JK Rowling's website. Only if you have no access to an internet connection, and you haven't read her previous interviews, then this book would be informative to you. Otherwise, save your money.



3. How I wish I had read some online reviews before picking up this clunker at the Barnes and Noble this week! It would be patronizing and insulting to kids to say this was written for children. Kids who read and understand the Harry Potter books will be far too advanced to find this more than a paperweight. Grammatical errors abound, the author apparently has a very limited vocabulary (he repeats pets phrases two and three times per paragraph) and yes, it is obvious he has never picked up and read a Harry Potter book. How else can one explain the Shapiro statement that wizarding banks are run by owls?!
   
   Give this one a pass.



4. Very informative in regards to the author. I just wish it had been updated to include more recent events. But, I did enjoy getting to know the author a little bit better. I guess dreams do come true!!



5. I love it because it has something to do with Harry Potter & I'm fascinated with the life of JK Rowling -BUT I don't trust that the information is 100 percent correct. How can I when on page 7 it claims that owls run the bank in the Harry Potter world? Obviously, this author hasn't paid close attention to the Harry Potter books. GOBLINS RUN THE BANK. Who can read the books and not know that?!

No comments about Paddling Southern New England: 30 Canoe Trips in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, Second Edition.

No comments about The Unfolding History of the Berkshires.

No comments about Storms And Shipwrecks of New England (Snow Centennial Editions).

No comments about Elegant Comfort Food from Dorset Inn: Traditional Cooking from Vermont's Oldest Continuously Operating Inn.

5 comments about Dog-Friendly New England: A Traveler's Companion, Second Edition (Dog Friendly).

1. This is a great book, we have dogs and love to travel. This book gives us a wonderful list of places to stay and other information.
   Thank you,
   Jane



2. We took our two dogs to Canada and used this to navigate the northeast. Highly highly recommended.



3. Dog-Friendly New England is a well-organized travel guide for those of us who can't think of travelling without our dog. The book is organized by region,
   and each region is rated for its "dog-friendliness."
   This book is fun to read when you're just trying to plan a New England trip.
   It offers just the right amount of information, with capsule reviews of lodging establishments, restaurants, and attractions. You can probably plan your whole trip to New England based on the recommendations in this book.



4. My wife and I wanted to travel with our Newfoundland dog. No small feat! I read the reviews of this book and decided to try it for myself. I have just returned from 8 days in Kennebunk, Kittery, Bar Harbr ME and Newport RI. The suggested places to stay were teriffic. Clean, roomy enough and very very hospitable. The places to eat and go were also uniformly great! While these were not 5 star resorts, the owners get 5 stars for opening their places to a gateful family! GET THIS BOOK!



5. I purchased this volume, unread, as a gift. Therefore, I cannot offer first-hand testimony (hence, my four stars). The recipient, however, vouches for its accuracy and usefulness.