David Conroy, In Public Houses (1992), illuminates the growing popularity and importance of taverns in the eighteenth century. Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten (revised ed. 1996), demonstrates how archaeological discoveries illuminate the study of the material life of early America. Jack Greene, Pursuits of Happiness (1988), remains an influential interpretation of the period. Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul (1998), studies the changing world views reflected in crime narratives of the colonial era. Hancock, Oceans of Wine (2009), traces the networks of consumption and culture that formed around the commerce in Madeira wine. Allan Kulikoff, From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers (2000), emphasizes the importance of land to the expectations and experiences of the British immigrants who came to North America. Barry Levy, Quakers and the American Family (1988), underscores the novel and influential family values of the Friends in the Middle Colonies. Mark Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism (2003), defines the core features of evangelical religious expression and belief in eighteenth-century Britain and its American colonies. Mary P. Ryan, Mysteries of Sex (2006), includes a survey of changes in gender roles in colonial farm families. Shields, Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America (1997), examines coffeehouses and other urban institutions where ideas and information circulated among colonial elites. Chapter 5 Fred Anderson, The Crucible of War (2000), provides a comprehensive narrative of the French and Indian War. Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman (2007), demonstrates the importance of women to white-Indian diplomacy in the Texas borderlands, a region where natives were politically dominant. T. H. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution (2004), illuminates the growth of Britain’s Empire of Goods in the North American context.
Colin Calloway, The Scratch of the Pen (2006), treats 1763 as a pivotal year in the history of North America. Michael Coe, The Line of (2006), surveys archaeological findings on the sites where British forts stood in western New England during the mid-1700s. Konstantin Dierks, In My Power (2009), probes the development of correspondence and communications infrastructure in the eighteenth century. Gregory Evans Dowd, War Under Heaven (2004), maps the fate and significance of Pontiac’s Rebellion. John Mack Faragher, A Great and Noble Scheme (2005), details the saga of the Acadian expulsion and diaspora. Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire (2008), charts the growth of an overlooked political power in the American Plains and Southwest. Paul Mapp, The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire (2011), explores European perceptions of the western parts of North America. James Merrell, Into the American Woods (1999), studies the administrators, entrepreneurs, and converts who negotiated the fragile peace between natives and settlers in the Pennsylvania frontier. Jane Merritt, At the Crossroads (2003), connects deteriorating white-Indian relations in the Middle Colonies to new ideas about race. Peter Moogk, La Nouvelle France (2000), explores the cultural identity of French colonists in Canada. Daniel Richter, Facing East from Indian Country (2001), narrates the European colonization of America from a native perspective and presents the French and Indian War as a turning point in that story. Peter Silver, Our Savage Neighbors (2009), shows how fear of Indian attack united a diverse society of immigrants to the British colonies in the 1750s. Timothy J. Shannon, Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire (2000), places the Albany Plan of Union in the context of imperial politics and disputes some of the received wisdom regarding its provenance. Richard White, The Middle Ground (1991), highlights the role of culture in the diplomatic politics of the Great Lakes region in order to rethink the history of relations in North America before 1815.
Chapter 6 Colin Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country (1995), considers the revolutionary crisis from a native perspective. Caroline Cox, A Proper of Honor (2007), highlights the role of social conflict within George Washington’s army. Douglas Egerton, Death or Liberty (2009), reconstructs the experiences and dilemmas of African Americans during the Revolution. Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana (2001), considers the impact of a smallpox outbreak on the struggle for independence. David Hackett Fischer, Liberty and Freedom (2005), shows how two key ideas of the revolutionary cause were represented visually. Edward Gray and Jane Kamensky (eds.), Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution (2013), presents a wide-ranging collection of recent scholarly perspectives on the experience of the war and the meaning of the struggle for independence. Woody Holton, Forced Founders (1999), argues that material interests, and not just abstract ideas, underlay revolutionary sentiment in Virginia. Edward Larkin, Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution (2005), explores the literary and political innovations of Paine’s writings. Mayer, Belonging to the Army (1999), reconstructs the world of female “camp followers” in the war. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious (1982), remains an influential comprehensive narrative of the American Revolution. Gary B. Nash, The Crucible (1979), locates revolutionary sentiment within the context of egalitarian sentiments and struggles in colonial seaports. Gary B. Nash, The Forgotten Fifth (2006), rethinks the significance of the war from the perspective of African Americans, including those who joined the British side. Andrew O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided (2000), explains why Britain’s Caribbean colonies did not join in the revolt against the empire. Ray Raphael, A People’s History of the American Revolution (2001), offers a detailed survey of the crisis and the war, emphasizing the experiences of women, the poor, the enslaved, and Indians.
Colin Harrison, American Culture in the 1990s (2010), analyzes key cultural and political events of that decade and their legacies. James T. Kloppenberg, Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition (2011), explores Obama’s commitment to freedom, equality, and deliberative politics. Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto (2011), argues that programming decisions made at the beginning of the digital revolution have fundamentally transformed our culture, and not necessarily for the better. James Livingston, The World Turned Inside Out: American Thought and Culture at the End of the 20th Century (2010), argues that, since the 1960s, the Left has won almost every battle of the culture wars and that, contrary to conventional wisdom, it has been surprisingly successful in defending big government, as well. Jeffrey Melnick, 9/11 Culture (2009), analyzes cultural responses to the attacks of September 11. Williamson Murray and Robert H. Scales, The Iraq War: A Military History (2005), analyzes the aims, strategy, tactics, and battlefield experiences of both sides in the war. Steven E. Schier, ed., The Postmodern Presidency: Bill Clinton’s Legacy in U.S. Politics (2000), traces Clinton’s courtship of public opinion and explains the significance of his celebrity status. Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster (2009), recounts how new communities and ideals emerged out of natural and human-made disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism (2008), explains how, in the 1970s, countercultural figures such as Stewart Brand recognized digital technology’s potential as a tool for creating virtual, utopian community; made the Internet what it is today; and became highly successful “tech” entrepreneurs along the way. Julian E. Zelizer, ed., The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment (2010), collects historians’ contextualization of various aspects of Bush’s administration, from the corporate bailouts to compassionate conservatism and the war on terror.