Colonial America Third Edition

by C. Richard Middleton

Accompanied by maps, contemporary illustrations, chronologies, documents, and a fully updated and expanded bibliography, this comprehensive and readable history of the colonial period offers a fascinating analysis of the evolution of a new and distinctive society.Fully revised and expanded third edition, with an updated bibliographyIncludes new chapter on the Spanish in Florida, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as an account of the French settlements in LouisianaProvides dozens of maps, illustrations, chronologies, and documents

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction

576 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 1996

About the author

C. Richard Middleton is Professor of History at Queens University Belfast. He earned his BA and Ph.D. at the University of Exeter.

Reviews

[Rebecca Radnor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm no expert on the topic, but this seems like a very good textbook. It provides a macro-view; it addresses change from the tides of history and culture perspective with relatively little focus on 'great men'. Cause and effect is shown as individuals responding to their context, be it legal, economic, or cultural; distinctions are drawn between the responses of different subgroups so you don't get that unrealistic 'we were always American' feeling, but rather a sense of how events ultimately brought them together, i.e., the Dutch, Germans, English, etc.

It's aimed at upper level high school kids or college undergrads. It presents history as a debate with contrasting views (which are usually explored in depth in the footnotes), with a particularly interesting section on marriage and fertility that shows how our understandings have changed as historians began to look at the 'every man' rather than on just the elites.

I particularly like how it shows an evolution of the definition of a "good" father, and how that ties into differing expectations of power in general, and then of the king. Also, the fact that by the time of John Adams it was not uncommon for brides to be pregnant (which included Abigail Adams, not something the book notes but still a useful fact that demonstrates that our founders were a function of their times.)

It offers primary documents to supplement the 2ndary analysis -- including some pretty cool ones, it has a boatload of bibliography sorted by the topic each source specializes in, so a nice starting point for further research. This is also true in the footnotes, and as such from a teacher's perspective it acts as a great resource for setting students off on independent research. There are chapters devoted to every normally undiscussed minority, etc.