Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America

by Ned C. Landsman

Overview

This work examines colonial New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania as central to both warfare and the emerging British-Atlantic world of culture and trade.

In this probing history, Ned C. Landsman demonstrates how the Middle Colonies came to function as a distinct region. He argues that while each territory possessed varying social, religious, and political cultures, the collective lands of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were unified in their particular history and place in the imperial and Atlantic worlds.

Landsman shows 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. They eventually emerged 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?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801899706
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/03/2022
Series:	Regional Perspectives on Early America
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	254
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ned C. Landsman is a professor of history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the author of From Colonials to Provincials and Scotland and Its First American Colony, 1683–1765.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue: Region and History
1. The Origins of the Middle Colonies
2. The Duke's Dominions
3. Penn's Proprietary
4. The Commercial Crossroads of the British Atlantic
5. The Crossroads of Cultures: Diversity, Toleration, and Pluralism
6. The Crossroads of Philosophy and Faith
7. Politics at the Crossroads: Liberty and Faction, Empire and War
Epilogue: Empire and Revolution
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Editorial Reviews

Solid, well-sourced, and very readable. Recommended.
—PhiloBiblos

Researchers on the middle colonies may find it a starting point and essential reference on most topics.
—Choice

Informative, nicely written synthesis.
—Judith A. Ridner, Journal of American History

Landsman and the press are to be commended for promoting, albeit in traditional print format, the importance of the middle colonies for the development of American society to an English-speaking, twenty-first-century audience that is increasingly unaware of historical perspectives before the founding of the Republic.
—Marianne S. Wokeck, Historian

Students new to the field and senior scholars alike can benefit from, and should enjoy, this excellent short volume.
—Liam Riordan, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

From the Publisher

Researchers on the middle colonies may find it a starting point and essential reference on most topics.

Choice

Students new to the field and senior scholars alike can benefit from, and should enjoy, this excellent short volume.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography - Liam Riordan

Solid, well-sourced, and very readable. Recommended.

PhiloBiblos

Landsman and the press are to be commended for promoting, albeit in traditional print format, the importance of the middle colonies for the development of American society to an English-speaking, twenty-first-century audience that is increasingly unaware of historical perspectives before the founding of the Republic.

Historian - Marianne S. Wokeck

Informative, nicely written synthesis.

Journal of American History - Judith A. Ridner

Landsman and the press are to be commended for promoting, albeit in traditional print format, the importance of the middle colonies for the development of American society to an English-speaking, twenty-first-century audience that is increasingly unaware of historical perspectives before the founding of the Republic.

— Marianne S. Wokeck

Historian

Informative, nicely written synthesis.

— Judith A. Ridner

Journal of American History