Everyday Nature
Knowledge of the Natural World in Colonial New York
Sara S. Gronim
Praise for Everyday Nature
“This volume is the first close study of American colonials’ beliefs and practices that spans the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While deeply empirical, it also situates colonials within the larger Atlantic context.”-Philip J. Pauly, author of Fruits and Plains: Horticulture and the Transformation of North America
Description:
In the modern world, the public looks to scientists and scholars for their expertise on issues ranging from the effectiveness of vaccines to the causes of natural disasters. But for early Americans, whose relationship to nature was more intimate and perilous than our own, personal experience, political allegiances, and faith in God took precedence over the experiments of the learned.
In Everyday Nature, Sara Gronim shows how scientific advances were received in the early modern world, from the time Europeans settled in America until just before the American Revolution. Settlers approached a wide range of innovations, such as smallpox inoculation, maps and surveys, Copernican cosmology, and Ben Franklin’s experiments with electricity, with great skepticism. New Yorkers in particular were distrustful because of the chronic political and religious factionalism in the colony. Those discoveries that could be easily reconciled with existing beliefs about healing the sick, agricultural practices, and the revolution of the planets were more readily embraced.
A fascinating portrait of colonial life, this book traces a series of innovations that were disseminated throughout the Atlantic world during the Enlightenment, and shows how colonial New Yorkers integrated new knowledge into their lives.
About the Author:
Sara S. Gronim is an assistant professor in the department of history at Long Island University.
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-4024-0
Pages: 272 pages. 10 b&w illustrations
Publication Date: April 2007
Price: $49.95 (Excluding: Sales tax)
New Jersey in the American Revolution
First Paperback Edition
Editor: Barbara J. Mitnick
Foreword by State Senator Leonard Lance
Praise for the cloth edition
“This long overdue work justifies New Jersey’s claim to be the ‘cockpit of the revolution.’ It should be required reading for all interested in our country’s beginnings.”-Thomas H. Kean, former governor of New Jersey
Description:
Barbara J. Mitnick has edited a remarkably comprehensive anthology, shedding new light on the rich and turbulent late eighteenth-century period in New Jersey. Originally conceived as a legacy of the state’s 225th Anniversary of the Revolution Celebration Commission and sponsored by the Washington Association of New Jersey, the volume brings together contributions by twelve outstanding, recognized experts on New Jersey history.
Chapters explore topics including New Jersey as the “Crossroads of the Revolution,” important military campaigns, the 1776 Constitution, and the significant contribution of blacks, Native Americans, and women to the fighting and to the homefront. Reflecting the contemporary view that the war’s impact extended beyond military engagements, original essays also discuss the fine and decorative arts, literature, architecture, and social and economic conditions. The reader is presented with a picture of life in New Jersey both separate from as well as connected to the struggle for American independence and the establishment of the nation.
About the Author:
Barbara J. Mitnick, editor of New Jersey in the American Revolution, received her Ph.D. in American painting, sculpture, and architectural history from Rutgers University. She is an art historian and adjunct professor of American history painting at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.
Paper ISBN 0-8135-4095-X
Pages: 296 pages. 13 color and 57 b&w illustrations
Publication Date: May 2007
Price: $22.95
The Native Peoples of North America: A History
Bruce E. Johansen
Praise for The Native Peoples of North America
"The Native Peoples of North America brilliantly succeeds in portraying cultures indigenous to North America from their earliest origins to the present. . . . These two volumes will undoubtedly become an integral part of Native American history."-Booklist
"Expertly compiled . . . very highly recommended. The Native Peoples of North America provides essential and comprehensive coverage."-The Bookwatch
Description:
From the earliest traces of first arrivals to the present, Native Americans represent a diverse and colorful array of cultures. Covering Central America, the United States, and Canada, and topics as diverse as archaeological discoveries from thousands of years ago and accounts of reservation life today, this study draws on traditional records as well as oral histories and biographical sketches to bring the history of these varied peoples to life.
Johansen's account, now available for the first time in one comprehensive volume, tackles the various theories that date Native Americans' first probable appearance, now agreed to be perhaps 30,000 years before Columbus's arrival. Chapters trace the explosion of westward expansion and include personal sketches of some of those famous for native resistance, notably Tecumseh's six-nation alliance. The book also explores the new wave of Native American activism that began in the 1960s, reservation life today, the repatriation of artifacts, and the current and widespread revival of native language studies.
Written in a compelling and accessible style, this book not only provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of North American Indians, but also offers an uncommonly rich description of the material and intellectual ways that Native American cultures have influenced the life and institutions of people across the globe.
About the Author:
Bruce E. Johansen is Frederick W. Kayser Professor of Communication and Native American Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Subject: American StudiesPaper ISBN 0-8135-3899-8
Pages: 512 pp. 65 b&w illustrations
Price: $26.95 (Excluding: Sales tax)
January 2, 2007