Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America

Regional Perspectives on Early America

by Ned C. Landsman

This work examines the Middle Colonies—New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—as a region at the center of imperial contests among competing European powers and Native American nations and at the fulcrum of an emerging British-Atlantic world of culture and trade.

Ned C. Landsman traces the history of the Middle Colonies to address questions essential to understanding their role in the colonial era. He probes the concept of regionality and argues that while each territory possessed varying social, religious, and political cultures, the collective lands of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania came to function as a region because of their particular history and their distinct place in the imperial and Atlantic worlds. Landsman demonstrates that the societal cohesiveness of the three colonies originated in the commercial and military rivalries among Native nations and developed further with the competing involvement of the European powers, eventually emerging as the focal point in the contest for dominion over North America. In relating this progression, Landsman discusses various factors in the region's development, including the Enlightenment, evangelical religion, factional politics, religious and ethnic diversity, and distinct systems of Protestant pluralism. Ultimately, he argues, it was within the Middle Colonies that the question was first posed, What is the American?

An insightful and valuable classroom synthesis of the scholarship of the Middle Colonies, Crossroads of Empire makes clear the vital role of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in establishing an American identity.

Genres: History, American History

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 8, 2010

About the author

Ned C. Landsman is associate professor of history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author of Scotland and its First American Colony (1985) and numerous articles on Scottish and American religious culture in the eighteenth century.

Reviews

[Jim Lindner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crossroads

A very engaging book, it’s a blend of history that we all know about, along with well-crafted new interpretations. For instance, any history person knows about William Penn and the Quaker tradition, but the interpretation of the 1707 Act of Union elevating Scottish Presbyterianism to an on par level with English Anglicanism was new and refreshing for me.

This is a well-written, engaging book that covers a region not often written about in modern American historiography. I recommend it.

[Sean McGowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

[Tim Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative drill-down of the Middle Colonies -- New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware -- during the Colonial Era. Most history neglects this region in favor of New England and Virginia.