Secret History; or, The Horrors of Santo Domingo and Laura
By Leonora Sansay
Edited by Michael J. Drexler
Based on Sansay's eyewitness accounts of the final days of French rule in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Secret History is a vivid account of race warfare and domestic violence. Sansay's writing provocatively draws comparisons between Saint-Domingue during the Haitian Revolution and the postrevolutionary United States, while fluidly combining qualities of the eighteenth-century epistolary novel, colonial travel writing, and political analysis.
Laura, Sansay's second novel, features as its protagonist a beautiful impoverished orphan who throws herself headlong into a secret marriage with a young medical student. When her husband dies in a duel in an effort to protect his wife's reputation, Laura finds herself once more alone in the world.
Comments:"Michael Drexler's splendidly documented, richly contextualized edition of Leonora Sansay's Secret History and Laura is indispensable to anyone studying the complexities of the Haitian Revolution, the conventions of gothic literature, and the history of the Americas. The appendices gather together for the first time letters between Sansay and Aaron Burr, as well as news reports of the Haitian Revolution in the US press, observations by Charles Brockden Brown, memoirs by Condy Raguet, and paintings by Agostino Brunias. These appendices alone constitute a repository of materials that will offer scholars and students everything needed for an interdisciplinary course on romance and race—with Haiti as rightful progenitor and ancestor spirit." - Colin Dayan, Vanderbilt University, author of Haiti, History, and the Gods
Michael J. Drexler is an Assistant Professor of English at Bucknell University.
Forthcoming July 20072007 9781551113463 / 1551113465 322pp. 5.5x8.5
Paperback $19.95 CDN / $16.95 US / £9.99 UK / $26.95 AUST
BISAC - FIC019000
http://www.broadviewpress.com/bvbooks.asp?BookID=863
The Long Road to Change
America’s Revolution, 1750-1820
By Eric Nellis
Comments:“Eric Nellis’s book sounds less like an extended piece of writing and more like a brilliant, confident, articulate speaker who engages his audience because his words flow into their thinking. I could almost feel his eye contact. Time and again his account of the Revolution reminded me of the first time I encountered an idea or concept with a freshness that made me sit up, suddenly awake in the presence of an arresting insight. Negotiating conflicting demands for brevity and coverage, Nellis adroitly lavishes attention on some scenes and then moves on.” - Robert M. Calhoon, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
“Eric Nellis’s gripping narrative and authoritative analysis provides the best single-volume account of the development of an imperialistically expansive republic from a separatist rebellion in British America. The Long Road to Change is a perfect text for United States surveys and for classes on Early American History, with crucial documents, timelines and bibliographic essays for each chapter, and generous maps and tables. It masterfully synthesizes recent and classic historiography on social, economic, political, military, and constitutional history with new emphases on slavery, First Nations, gender, class, and the West.” - John E. Crowley, Dalhousie University
“In The Long Road to Change, Eric Nellis argues that the American Revolution was not a single event that could be replicated elsewhere in the world, but a prolonged process stretching over seven decades, with the War for Independence (1775-83) as one part of the cycle of change. By extending his analysis to 1820, Nellis challenges both students and scholars to re-examine their assumptions about the American Revolution ending with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, or the writing and ratification of the US Constitution (1787-89), or the contentious presidential election of 1800. In an age when politicians think democratic change can be effected in a few years, if not months, Nellis offers a cautionary reminder that the development of American democracy stretched over 70 years. His provocative book is written in a style that is accessible to first year undergraduates, yet substantive enough for graduate students to ground themselves in the major developments of the era. Professors, meanwhile, will find themselves reaching for a copy to revise their lectures.” - Elizabeth Mancke, University of Akron
Eric Nellis is Associate Professor Emeritus of History, University of British Columbia. He is the editor of The Records of the Eighteenth Century Boston Overseers of the Poor (Colonial Society of Massachusetts, University Press of Virginia, 2006).
ISBN
1551111101
PUB. DATE
March 2007
FORMAT
324pp. / 6x9 / Paperback /
$29.95 CDN / $25.95 US / £15.99 UK / $42.95 AUST
BISAC - HIS036030 HIS036000
http://www.broadviewpress.com/bvbooks.asp?BookID=838
The Autobiography of Ashley Bowen, 1728-1813
Edited by Daniel Vickers
The first American sailor known to write his own autobiography, Ashley Bowen remains a valuable storyteller who can speak to today’s readers about the maritime world in the age of sail. Ashley Bowen began his seafaring career at the age of eleven. After leaving the sea, Bowen spent the rest of his days as a ship-rigger in Marblehead, Massachusetts. A witness to significant historical events, including the British conquest of Canada and the American Revolution, Ashley Bowen confounds today’s audience with his eighteenth-century interpretation of events—an interpretation informed by his deeply religious beliefs and his suspicion of Yankee patriotism.
The Broadview edition is the first to present the story of Ashley Bowen as a continuous narrative. Vickers’ introduction provides the context for Bowen’s life in colonial New England, and additional writings by Ashley Bowen and his Marblehead contemporaries are included. The appendices include Bowen’s diary accounts of his experiences in the 1759 British expedition against Quebec, smallpox epidemics, and the American Revolution.
Comments:
“Thanks to Daniel Vickers and Broadview Press for making Ashley Bowen’s Diary and Journals so readily accessible. Heretofore only available to scholars working in research libraries, The Autobiography of Ashley Bowen can now become essential reading in undergraduate Early American, Atlantic, and maritime history courses.” - Robert A. McCaughey, Columbia University
“Daniel Vickers’ masterful treatment of Ashley Bowen’s journals gives us the best look into colonial maritime life to date. Bowen’s meticulous journal entries combined with Vickers’ editorial technique makes this an invaluable resource for scholars and maritime enthusiasts alike.” - Joshua M. Smith, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
“The Autobiography of Ashley Bowen is an essential source for anyone interested in maritime history. Daniel Vickers provides an excellent introduction that places Bowen in the larger context of Atlantic history. The maps, notes, and appendices are a treasure trove of information.” - Jerry Bannister, Dalhousie University
Daniel Vickers is Head of the Department of History at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Farmers and Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630-1850 (1994) and, with Vince Walsh, Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail (2005).
ISBN
1551117819
July 2006
FORMAT
144pp. / 5.5x8.5 / Paperback /
PRICE
$18.95 CDN / $15.95 US / £11.99 UK / $24.95 AUST
http://www.broadviewpress.com/bvbooks.asp?BookID=782
Common Sense
By Thomas Paine
Edited by Edward Larkin
When Common Sense was published in January 1776, it sold, by some estimates, a stunning 150,000 copies in the colonies. What exactly made this pamphlet so appealing? This is a question not only about the state of mind of Paine’s audience, but also about the role of public opinion and debate, the function of the press, and the shape of political culture in the colonies.
This Broadview edition of Paine’s famous pamphlet attempts to reconstruct the context in which it appeared and to recapture the energy and passion of the dispute over the political future of the British colonies in North America. Included along with the text of Common Sense are some of the contemporary arguments for and against the Revolution by John Dickinson, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson; materials from the debate that followed the pamphlet’s publication showing the difficulty of the choices facing the colonists; the Declaration of Independence; and the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776.
Comments:
“Edward Larkin’s new edition of Common Sense will be welcomed by readers. With a lively and detailed introduction, thorough scholarly notes, and a representative selection of the contemporaneous responses it provoked, this should become the definitive new edition of Paine’s classic tract.” - Richard Boyd, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“The big problem with Paine is that current readers have trouble seeing why his ideas did not seem so common-sensical to eighteenth-century people. Larkin addresses this problem with supplementary texts that focus on the debate over independence in America; along with his interesting and approachable introduction, the combination makes for the best edition of Paine’s Common Sense available.” - Daniel Vickers, University of California, San Diego
“There are many fine editions of this indispensable American text. But this one is richer and more rewarding than the others. It invites readers to encounter Common Sense in the fullness of its historical setting. And as it does, it makes plain how utterly Tom Paine towered above all other Revolutionary writers.” - Michael W. Zuckerman, University of Pennsylvania
“Edward Larkin’s new edition of Tom Paine’s Common Sense will be a boon to teachers and students. It thoughtfully contextualizes Paine’s pamphlet while highlighting the singularity of his voice. Most importantly, it will aid students in placing Common Sense in that absolutely central eighteenth-century culture war: the beginning of the unfinished argument over modern democracy.” - Michael Meranze, University of California, San Diego
Edward Larkin is Coordinator of the American Studies Program and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Richmond. He has published several articles on Thomas Paine and has completed a manuscript on Paine and political writing during the Revolutionary era.
ISBN
1551115719
PUB. DATE
March 2004
FORMAT
252pp. / 5.5x8.5 / Paperback / Printed on 100% Recycled Paper
PRICE
$9.95 CDN / $7.95 US / £4.99 UK / $12.95 AUST
July 24, 2007