Rip Van Winkle's Neighbors: The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley, 1720-1850 (Suny Series, An American Region: Studies in the Hudson Valley)
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: September 2001
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 186
ISBN-13: 9780791450840
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; American history: c 1800 to c 1900; Social History; c 1700 to c 1800; c 1800 to c 1900; Social conditions; Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and; History; Sociology; History: American; USA; United States - State & Local - General; Economic conditions; Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.)
Description: "Although Rip Van Winkle was a fictional character, his community in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York State was very real. Thomas S. Wermuth's book shows that the popular view of Hudson Valley farmers as self-sufficient, independent, and free of governmental authority is as fictional as the character of Rip Van Winkle himself.

In fact these mid-Hudson farmers lived in villages where economic practices and behavior were regulated by civil authorities as well as neighborhood concerns, and where acquisitive practices that were believed to endanger the public good were forbidden.".

"Based on extensive research into previously unused town records and commercial accounts, this book challenges the belief that the early valley was a capitalist society, arguing that the beliefs and practices associated with modern capitalism developed slowly and unevenly, and were not always welcomed by valley families."--BOOK JACKET.