Discovery and exploration
Useful introductions include Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America, 2 vol. (1971–74); and David B. Quinn, North America from Earliest Discovery to First Settlements: The Norse Voyages to 1612 (1977). The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Colonial development to 1763
Charles M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, 4 vol. (1934–38, reprinted 1964), is the starting point for an understanding of the structure of the British Empire in America. Lawrence Henry Gipson, The British Empire Before the American Revolution, 15 vol. (1936–70), represents the culmination of the “British Imperial” school of interpretation. Gary B. Nash, Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America, 2nd ed. (1982); and Jack P. Greene and J.R. Pole (eds.), Colonial British America (1984), are excellent surveys.
(Settlement): Perry Miller, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939, reissued 1983), and a sequel, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (1953, reissued 1967), together constitute perhaps the finest work of intellectual history ever written by an American historian. Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America (1975); and James Axtell, The European and the Indian (1982), are important accounts of white–Indian relations.
(Imperial organization): Useful surveys include Michael Kammen, Empire and Interest: The American Colonies and the Politics of Mercantilism (1970); and Stephen Saunders Webb, 1676, the End of American Independence (1984).
(The growth of provincial power): James A. Henretta, The Evolution of American Society, 1700–1815 (1973), is an excellent survey of the American economic and political order. Jack P. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness (1988), seeks to demonstrate the variety of colonial social developments. Carl Bridenbaugh, Myths and Realities: Societies of the Colonial South (1952, reprinted 1981), argues persuasively that the colonial South consisted of not one but three sections. Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 (1982), imaginatively surveys the social order of 18th-century Virginia. Gary B. Nash, The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution (1979), surveys the growth of American cities in the 18th century. John J. McCusker and Russell R. Menard, The Economy of British America, 1607–1789 (1985), is a good survey.
(Cultural and religious development): Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Colonial Experience (1958, reissued 1988), gives a brilliant, if overstated, account of American uniqueness. Henry F. May, The Enlightenment in America (1976), provocatively examines American intellectual development. See also Brooke Hindle, The Pursuit of Science in Revolutionary America, 1735–1789 (1956, reprinted 1974). Alan Heimert, Religion and the American Mind, from the Great Awakening to the Revolution (1966), makes an important though polemical contribution to the understanding of the Great Awakening.
(America, England, and the wider world): Overviews are found in Francis Parkman, A Half-Century of Conflict, 2 vol. (1892, reprinted 1965); Howard H. Peckham, The Colonial Wars, 1689–1762 (1964); and Alan Rogers, Empire and Liberty: American Resistance to British Authority, 1755–1763 (1974). Richard R. Beeman
The American Revolution
Richard L. Blanco (ed.), The American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Encyclopedia, 2 vol. (1993), is a valuable reference source. Edward Countryman, The American Revolution (1985), considers American social history in the explanation of how American resistance developed. P.G.D. Thomas, British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis (1975), is a scholarly account of British objectives and methods, and The Townshend Duties Crisis (1987) is the most comprehensive account of this episode. Jerrilyn Greene Marston, King and Congress (1987), studies how Congress acquired formal “legitimacy” in the course of rebellion. Morton White, The Philosophy of the American Revolution (1978), analyzes the concepts that took shape in the Declaration of Independence. Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics (1979), interprets the complex politics of the Continental Congress. Willard M. Wallace J.R. Pole
The early federal republic
Peter S. Onuf, The Origins of the Federal Republic (1983), stresses the jurisdictional problems of relations among states and between states and the Confederation. Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (1969), provides a comprehensive “ideological” interpretation emphasizing the transformation of political thought into action. David F. Epstein, The Political Theory of The Federalist (1984); and the lengthy introduction to Cecelia M. Kenyon, The Antifederalists (1966, reprinted 1985), are excellent studies. Jackson Turner Main, The Antifederalists: Critics of the Constitution, 1781–1788 (1961, reprinted 1974), analyzes the social origins and aspirations of the Anti-Federalists. Joyce Appleby, Capitalism and a New Social Order (1984), argues that capitalism was seen as a liberating force by Jeffersonians as well as by Hamiltonians. Other studies of the period include Gerald Stourzh, Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government (1970); James M. Banner, Jr., To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1789–1815 (1970); John Zvesper, Political Philosophy and Rhetoric (1977); Richard Hofstadter, The Idea of a Party System (1969); and Noble E. Cunningham, The Jeffersonian Republicans (1957), The Process of Government Under Jefferson (1978), and The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power (1963). J.R. Pole
From 1816 to 1850
(The Era of Mixed Feelings): A comprehensive overview of the politics of this period is George Dangerfield, The Era of Good Feelings (1952, reprinted 1973). Shaw Livermore, Jr., The Twilight of Federalism: The Disintegration of the Federalist Party, 1815–1830 (1962, reissued 1972), is an excellent analysis. Glover Moore, The Missouri Controversy, 1819–1821 (1953, reissued 1967), skillfully untangles that complex problem.
(Economic development): Still valuable and informative are Bray Hammond, Banks and Politics in America, from the Revolution to the Civil War (1957, reissued 1967); Edward Pessen, Most Uncommon Jacksonians: The Radical Leaders of the Early Labor Movement (1967, reprinted 1970); and Walter Buckingham Smith, Economic Aspects of the Second Bank of the United States (1953, reissued 1969).
(Blacks, slave and free): Particularly noteworthy studies are Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Rolclass="underline" The World the Slaves Made (1974); Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750–1925 (1976); Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860 (1961, reprinted 1970); and Ira Berlin, Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (1974, reissued 1981).