THE ART OF FAMILY
Genealogical Artifacts in New England
Edited by D. Brenton Simons; Peter Benes
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Description:
In this lavishly illustrated volume, which features over 200
halftones and sixteen color plates from public and private
collections, distinguished experts in history, art, and genealogy
explore the important but often overlooked relationship between
material culture and family history in New England during the
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The
contributors examine a broad range of family record artifacts,
including genealogical samplers, mourning embroideries,
pen-and-ink family registers, gravestones, heraldica, textiles,
furniture, silver, and portraiture.
An indispensable resource on the world of decorative arts and its
significance in preserving 'family identity,' this beautiful work
provides much valuable information and research clues for
modern-day genealogists.
D. BRENTON SIMONS is Assistant Executive Director of the New
England Historic Genealogical Society and Executive Editor of
New England Ancestors. He is the author of The Langhornes of
Langhorne Park. PETER BENES is cofounder and Director of The
Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife. He is the author of The
Masks of Orthodoxy: Folk Gravestone Carvings in Plymouth
County, Massachusetts, 1689–1805, Old-Town and the
Waterside,
and Charles Delin: Port Painter of Maastricht and Amsterdam.
Published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society
416 pages large format, 200 illustrations, indexes
2002 ISBN 0880821329 * $75.00 cloth
THE BOOK OF ABIGAIL AND
JOHN
Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784
Abigail Smith Adams; John Adams
Edited by L. H. Butterfield; Marc Friedlaender; Mary-Jo Kline
Intro by David McCullough
http://www.atsweb.neu.edu/nupress-cgi/nupress.cgi?action=more_info&id=378
Description:
John and Abigail, Abigail and John—their names are as
inseparably
linked as those of any pair in history. The story of these
lovers,
domestic partners, and patriots comes to life in this collection
of their
intimate correspondence.
The lives of this remarkable couple unfold alongside events of
the
Revolutionary War era, a time in which John left his family for
prolonged periods to serve his colony and country. Their engaging
exchanges follow John's career from provincial lawyer and farmer
in
Braintree, Massachusetts, to delegate to the Continental
Congresses
in Philadelphia, to diplomatic success in Europe. John reveals
himself
as an ambitious, determined, and self-doubting statesman with a
trusting, deeply affectionate character and an earthy sense of
humor.
Abigail's lively and captivating letters show the trials of an
intelligent,
strong, and resourceful woman who managed the family's farm and
business affairs and reared the pair's four children during her
husband's long absences. Her missives to John are filled with
outspoken remarks on politics, public figures, and world-shaking
events. An independent thinker and advocate of equal rights for
women, she urged him in one spirited letter to 'Remember the
Ladies'
in framing the new government. Abigail also vividly documents
domestic life in eighteenth-century America, providing
enlightening
details on health problems, childbirth, education, women's
activities,
the difficulties of travel, and the impact of wartime inflation.
The 226 letters contained in this volume are supplemented with a
few
to third parties and a sampling of diary entries. Altogether, the
words
and thoughts of these warm, if occasionally fallible, human
beings
richly convey the experience of the Revolutionary generation in a
most personal and authentic way.
'[John and Abigail] wrote to each other as 'dearest friend' with
an
ardor about each other, a realism about the world, and exaltation
of
the Revolution, that lifts these 'familiar letters' above
anything
'familiar' I can think of in the writings of America's classical
leaders.'
—Alfred Kazin, New Republic
L. H. BUTTERFIELD and MARC FRIEDLAENDER, as editor in chief and
editor, respectively, were long identified with the publication
of The
Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. MARY-JO
KLINE
was Associate Editor of The Adams Papers. DAVID MCCULLOUGH is
the author of the best-selling John Adams and the Pulitzer
Prize-winning biography, Truman.
illustrations, index 432 pages
2002 ISBN 1555535232 * $47.50 cloth
2002 ISBN 1555535224 * $18.95 paper
BURIED FROM THE WORLD:
Inside the Massachusetts State Prison, 1829-1831
Edited by Philip F. Gura
Intro by Philip F. Gura
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Description:
Between 1829 and 1831, Jared Curtis, the newly appointed prison
chaplain at the Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown,
interviewed
every one of the over 300 inmates at the prison and recorded
their
biographies in two leatherbound notebooks. Those notebooks, fully
transcribed and well annotated after their discovery in 1998,
form the
basis for Philip F. Gura’s Buried from the World.
Curtis’s notebooks provide the sole memorial of the hundreds
of
inarticulate prisoners who lived in the vast silence of
Charlestown
prison. The one or two paragraphs he devoted to each man capture
in
poignant shorthand lives otherwise lost to history, including
details of
age, race, upbringing and education, temperance, and the crime
that
brought that individual to Charlestown. Curtis’s words,
surrogate for
theirs, reveal as in no other known document the contours of the
prison experience in Jacksonian America.
Gura places the document in its historical context with a
thorough and
thoughtful introduction. He reviews the nature of
nineteenth-century
prison reform as the backdrop for the 1829 reorganization of the
Massachusetts facility in which Curtis worked. Gura also details
the
daily regimen and conditions within the state prison and
discusses the
demographics of the institution’s remarkably heterogeneous
population.
PHILIP F. GURA, the William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of
American Literature and Culture at the University of North
Carolina at
Chapel Hill, has published widely in early American history and
literature. His most recent book, America's Instrument: The Banjo
in
the Nineteenth Century, won a Deems Taylor Special Citation from
ASCAP.
Publisher: Massachusetts Historical Society
320 pages
illustrations/appendix/notes/bibliography/index
2002 ISBN 0934909792 * $30.00 cloth
FIRE AND ROSES: The
Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834
Nancy Lusignan Schultz
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Description:
In the midst of a deadly heat wave during the summer of 1834, a
woman clawed her way over the wall of an Ursuline convent on
Mount
Benedict in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and escaped to the home
of a
neighbor, pleading for protection. When the bishop, Benedict
Fenwick,
persuaded her to return, vicious gossip began swirling through
the
Yankee community and in the press that she was being held at the
convent against her will, and had even been murdered. The rumored
fate of the 'Mysterious Lady,' as she became popularly known,
ultimately led to the burning of the convent by an angry, drunken
mob
of Protestant men. The arsonists' ringleader, a brawny bricklayer
named John Buzzell, became a folk hero. The nuns scattered, and
their proud and feisty mother superior, Mary Anne Moffatt, who
battled
the working-class rioters and Church authorities, faded
mysteriously
into history.
Nancy Lusignan Schultz brings alive this forgotten event,
focusing her
probing lens on a time when independent, educated women were
feared as much as immigrants and Catholics, and anti-Papist
diatribes
were the stuff of bestsellers and standing-room-only lectures.
She
provides a glimpse into nineteenth-century Boston and into an
elite
boarding school for young women, mostly the daughters of wealthy
Protestants, vividly dissecting the period's roiling tensions
over class,
gender, religion, ethnicity, and education.
'This gripping narrative retraces the convergent emotional,
cultural,
and social forces that impelled a group of otherwise ordinary
citizens
to participate in an unthinkable act of violence and religious
persecution. . . . Utilizing court documents, letters, diaries,
and
newspaper articles, Schultz does a remarkable job of piecing
together
the startling circumstances surrounding this devastating
tragedy.'
—Booklist
'Schultz is to be commended for her riveting historical study,
which is
plotted like a novel, with tight pacing and fully realized
characters.'
—Publishers Weekly
'Painstaking scholarship and stylish, vivid description. . . . A
scholarly
study that is also gripping drama.'
—Kirkus Reviews
NANCY LUSIGNAN SCHULTZ is Professor and Coordinator of Graduate
Studies in English at Salem State College. She is the editor of
two
anthologies, Fear Itself: Enemies Real and Imagined in American
Culture and Veil of Fear: Nineteenth-Century Convent Tales. She
lives
in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
Winner of the New England American Studies Association's Lois
Rudnick Book Prize
336 pages illustrations, notes, appendix, index
2002 ISBN 1555535143 * $17.95 paper
JOHN ADAMS AND THE
FOUNDING OF THE REPUBLIC
Edited by Richard Alan
Ryerson
Description:
John Adams—lawyer, congressman, diplomat, vice president,
and president—had one
of the most varied and productive public careers of
America’s Revolutionary
generation. His many achievements, taken for granted or even
discounted through
much of the twentieth century, have in the past decade attracted
the increasingly
enthusiastic attention of historians, political scientists, and
the larger public. This
collection of essays, the first ever on its subject, provides
unique insights on Adams’s
life, from youth through old age, and his vital contributions to
the founding of the
nation. An introduction by the editor lays out the breadth of
Adams’s life and career in
general, setting the stage for focused explorations of the
essential aspects of his rich
legacy, including topics that have seldom, if ever, been examined
in any detail.
An indispensable resource for any reader who wishes to
understand Adams or his
world, the volume includes nine essays, all by leading
authorities on the man and his
era: 'John Adams and the Massachusetts Provincial Elite,' by
William Pencak; 'Before
Fame: Young John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,' by John Ferling;
'John Adams and
the 'Bolder Plan,'' by Gregg L. Lint; 'In the Shadow of
Washington: John Adams as
Vice President,' by Jack D. Warren; 'The Presidential Election of
1796,' by Joanne B.
Freeman; 'The Disenchantment of a Radical Whig: John Adams
Reckons with Free
Speech,' by Richard D. Brown; ''Splendid Misery': Abigail Adams
as First Lady,' by
Edith B. Gelles; 'John Adams and the Science of Politics,' by C.
Bradley Thompson;
and 'Presidents as Historians: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,'
by Herbert Sloan.
Each opens a new window on a historical figure poised for fresh
appreciation and
significance.
RICHARD ALAN RYERSON is Editor in Chief of The Adams
Papers editorial project at
the Massachusetts Historical Society. He is the author of The
Revolution Is Now
Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 17651776 and has
written several
articles and essays on Pennsylvania in the Revolutionary era and
on both John and
Abigail Adams.
Published by the Massachusetts Historical Society
2001 ISBN 0934909784 * $60.00 cloth
MIDWIFERY AND MEDICINE
IN BOSTON: Walter Channing, M.D., 1786-1876
Amalie M. Kass
Description:
A prominent obstetrician, professor of midwifery and medical
jurisprudence, and dean of the faculty at Harvard Medical
College, Dr.
Walter Channing (17861876) was a central figure in Boston's
medical
community for more than fifty years. He was also an important
presence in the lives of countless women who relied on him to
provide
safe pregnancy and childbirth, care for postpartum disorders, and
treat gynecological problems. Known for his medical expertise as
well
as his compassion and concern, Channing was highly regarded by
colleagues and patients alike.
This well-crafted biography rescues the remarkable but
overlooked
physician from obscurity. Channing's private and professional
experiences mirror dramatic changes in antebellum Boston, and
Amalie M. Kass provides both a rich picture of a multi-faceted
man and
a vivid depiction of his city's rapidly changing social,
political, and
economic landscape. She examines Channing's obstetrical practice
and charts his many other distinguished pursuits—lecturer to
hundreds
of young men in 'the art of midwifery,' consultant to doctors
throughout New England, staff physician for nearly two decades at
Boston's only general hospital, and editor of the New England
Journal
of Medicine and Surgery. In addition, Channing was a major force
in
gaining acceptance for the use of anesthesia in childbirth,
played an
instrumental role in founding the Boston Lying-In Hospital as a
refuge
for women who would otherwise lack decent obstetrical care, and
was
an active champion for the social reform movements of his day.
Kass's account also reveals the complexities and
contradictions in
Channing's life story. A cheerful and witty personality made him
a
favorite among his circle of friends and colleagues in Boston's
cultural
and intellectual elite, yet his outward sociability masked an
almost
unbearable inner sadness caused by family tragedies and
disappointments.
In a biography as distinctive as the unique man it
portrays, Kass
provides illuminating perspectives on medicine, society, and
women's
reproductive lives in nineteenth-century America.
AMALIE M. KASS is Lecturer on the History of Medicine
in the
Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is
the
coauthor of Perfecting the World: The Life and Times of Thomas
Hodgkin, M.D. and the author of numerous journal articles,
encyclopedic entries, and book reviews. She lives in the Boston
area.
Publisher: Northeastern University Press
2001 ISBN 1555535011 * $40.00 cloth
MONEY, MORALS, AND
POLITICS: Massachusetts in the Age of the Boston Associates
William F. Hartford
Description:
A group of wealthy families bound together by marriage and
financial interests, the
Boston Associates controlled extensive sectors of the antebellum
Massachusetts
economy. As leading figures in the Whig party, they also
dominated politics in the
Commonwealth. While the Associates remained a powerful force in
Bay State
economic life through most of the nineteenth century, their
political authority had
been sharply curtailed by the time of the Civil War.
In this insightful volume, William F. Hartford breaks
new ground by asking how the
Associates and their Federalist forebears maintained their
dominance for as long as
they did. He argues that the reasons for the elite group's early
successes in
establishing political leadership provide the key to
understanding the demise of
Massachusetts Whiggery. Hartford explains how the Associates
secured and
preserved power by crafting a compelling political appeal that
garnered the support of
broad segments of the electorate. The ideological framework of
that appeal rested on
two overarching principles: a strong defense of regional economic
interests forged by
linking merchant and manufacturer fortunes to those of regional
farmers, mechanics,
and other 'middling classes,' and a spirited assertion of
regional values that allowed
the Associates to pose as credible defenders of New England
civilization.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the Associates' rule
was being challenged by dissident
views, first expressed by labor radicals who raised troubling
questions about the
elite's commitment to the doctrine of social interdependence.
More importantly, the
Associates' equivocal response to the growing slave crises,
beginning with the
annexation of Texas, gave rise to charges that the group was more
concerned about
promoting its own interests than protecting the Commonwealth from
the aggressions
of a malevolent slaveholding aristocracy. As these perceptions
spread, Boston's elite
lost the moral authority to command popular support and their
political dominance
ultimately came to an end with the Know-Nothing insurrection of
1854.
Enlivened with sketches of leading figures of the
period, this in-depth study of the rise
and fall of Massachusetts Whiggery offers a fresh vista on the
political and social
history of antebellum America.
WILLIAM F. HARTFORD is Project Editor at National
Evaluation Systems, Inc. He is the
author of Where is Our Responsibility? Unions and Economic Change
in the New
England Textile Industry, 18701960, the coauthor of
Commonwealth of Toil:
Chapters in the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their
Unions, and the coeditor
of American Portraits: Biographies in United States History. He
lives in West
Springfield, Massachusetts.
Publisher: Northeastern University Press
notes/bibliography/index
2001 ISBN 1555534899 * $55.00 cloth
Puritan Family Life: The
Diary of Samuel Sewall
Judith S. Graham
Historians have commonly
characterized Puritan family life as joyless, repressive, even
brutal. By such
accounts, Puritan parents disciplined their children mercilessly,
crushed their wills, responded callously to their
deaths, and routinely sent them out of the home to be raised by
cold-hearted surrogates. The diary of prominent
Boston jurist and merchant Samuel Sewall (1652-1730) contradicts
this grim portrait of the Puritan household,
depicting instead a nurturing and caring place for childrearing.
Although Sewall was an exceptional Puritan father and not a
representative one, his judicial, civic, religious, and
business activities projected him far beyond his own privileged
and respectable circumstances. As a record of
the family and social life of New England's third generation, his
remarkable journal, which spans fifty-five
years, is rivaled only by that of his friend Cotton Mather.
Sewall provides rich details about the home where his
and Hannah Sewall's fourteen children were born, and the six who
survived infancy were raised. He takes the
reader through the streets and byways of Boston, to the
meetinghouse, to the places where his children were
educated and apprenticed, and to the homes of friends, neighbors,
and kin.
Judith S. Graham is a graduate of Brandeis University and
received her Ph.D. in History from Boston College.
She lives in Newton, Massachusetts.
Hardcover - 283 pages (April 2000)
ISBN: 1555534457 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.98 x 9.57 x 6.38,
$40.00
January 27, 2002