The Colonial Period of American History: The Settlements, Volume I

by Charles McLean Andrews

This three-volume work won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize in History.

Genres: History

551 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Charles McLean Andrews was one of the most distinguished American historians of his time as a leading authority on American colonial history. He wrote 102 major scholarly articles and books, as well as over 360 book reviews, newspaper articles, and short items. He is especially known as a leader of the "Imperial school" of historians who studied, and generally admired the efficiency of the British Empire in the 18th century.

Reviews

[Mark Bowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a four volume examination of colonial history, Charles Andrews redefined his field with such new insight and scholarly excellence as to be referred to today as the “inventor of the colonial period of American history.” Andrews helped redefine this field in three specific ways. First, he did not place the colonies in a traditional North American setting, rather he preferred to see them as extensions of the British Empire. He said that their “standing as colonies and not as independent states is the fact of greatest significance to the scholar--the key to the whole colonial situation.” Second, he examined the island colonies (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Bermuda, and the West Indies) with as much emphasis as the continental colonies because all shared the common experience of British colonial rule. He believed that just because they failed to revolt in the 1770s did not mean that they should be ignored. Finally, and in a more common historiographical approach of his day, Andrews gave the most weight to examining political institutions. He said that the “economic, social, and cultural aspects of a people’s life...cannot be given their proper place until the essential features of their political institutions--the framework of constituted authority--are made unmistakably clear.”

Richard R. Johnson, “Charles McLean Andrews and the Invention of American Colonial History,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, 43, 4 (October 1986).
Charles Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, Volume I, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934), xii.
Andrews, “On the Writing of Colonial History,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, 1 (January 1947): 30.