Everyday Life in Colonial America

by Louis B. Wright

Genres: History

255 pages

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Louis Booker Wright was an American author, educator and librarian. Wright was the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, the author of numerous books about the American colonial period, and in 1928 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Reviews

[William Guerrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delight to read. Published in 1965 and intended for a general audience (so no footnotes or theses) it offers both a good basic overview of the social history of colonial North America as a well as an interesting glimpse of 1965.

Books like this are hard to find today. I rescued mine from a bin on its way to a dumpster.

[Maria Nigro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated, but engaging, Intro level overview of the early colonies. With a thematic structure (as opposed to geographic or chronological) it highlights key cultural differences among the early colonies, some of which exist still today. Includes horrific stats about life expectancy in different colonies and linguistic patterns beyond the usual Boston accent.

[Emma Heinz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells about chores that folks in colonial America would do regularly. It has pictures in it to show different tools and practices. It even went down to discussing the types of things doctors used to treat people. Pass-times were also discussed.
Anyone who is a history nerd or just plain wants to learn something more about life back then would enjoy this book. I found it a quick read, once I sat down to focus on it. It was fairly interesting, but it's not the kind of genre I like, so I'm not the best judge on whether it was good or not. But I did learn quite a few things from it.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is misleading. The book doesn't specifically discuss everyday life, but covers trends such as schools, religion, military, etc. It also tries to cover both the northern and southern colonies, which often have a very different experience. However, the book is filled with historical illustrations and good content. The book was written in the mid-1960s, so it was refreshing to read text written before the spin of political correctness. For example, much is written about the Indians because they were a major force in this time period, but they are not labeled as 'good' or 'bad.'

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book, presumably obtained from the library, for the AP American History course at Maine Township High School South for a paper on the history of colonial Connecticut. The teacher, a Mr. Ellenberger as I recall, had gone to Grinnell College, always addressed us by last name and generally treated us as adults. He wasn't the only Grinnellian at our school. All of them were impressive and I ended up going there.