This volume provides a succinct; analytical; well-conceived; and nicely written account of the development of colonial North American thought and culture from 1680 to the eve of the American Revolution. Not an anachronistic search for the origins of later American cultural forms; it situates the subject firmlv within a transatlantic context. The author emphasizes the extent to which improving communications and expanding connections helped to incorporate colonial settlers into a larger British world by providing them access and inviting them to become contributors to a burgeoning public culture of print; which consisted of newspapers; magazines; books; and 1etters.Whereas during the first seven decades of the seventeenth century; the colonies had been little more than crude and isolated outposts of English culture; from the late seventeenth century; he contends; they increasingly became like Scotland and Protestant Ireland; intellectual and cultural provinces of an expanding British Empire. –Jack P. Greene; Journal of American History
#2102836 in Books Alexander B Downes 2012-08-28Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.10 x .90 x 6.10l; 1.00 #File Name: 0801478375328 pagesTargeting Civilians in War
Review
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Useful; well-researched; strongly arguedBy Reina PenningtonJudge the book on what it says it will do. This is a political science approach; not that of a historian; and an excellent book within the limits it sets for itself. It is a series of case studies; not a comprehensive history. Ethan Rafuse wrote a detailed review in the JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY; 73; no. 2; (2009): 661-662; and describes the book as "Useful; well-researched; strongly argued; and provocative (in the best sense)." It is a must-read for anyone studying strategic bombing or when and why civilians have consciously been targeted by various states in various kind of wars.12 of 70 people found the following review helpful. Very odd and incompleteBy J.J. SurbeckThis is an odd and very disappointing book. The title implies an overview of the massive subject of deliberate targeting of civilians in war; but it comes short of even addressing that. Maybe because of the enormity of the topic; the author chose to select four conflicts; three of which seem arbitrary but make sense (the Boer Wars; the Allied blockade in WWI and of course Allied bombings in WWII). But then he veers off in an unexpected and unrelated direction by examining the alleged "ethnic cleansing in the 'Palestine' war". He loses all credibility right there; regurgitating alleged facts gleaned from the now discredited so-called Israeli "New Historians" (see Fabricating Israeli History: The 'New Historians' (Cass Series--Israeli History; Politics; and Society)). Showing the classical one-sided analysis of anti-Israel authors; he doesn't say a word about the declared genocidal intentions of the Arabs both inside and outside of what became today's Israel; but chooses instead to focus on a fictitious ethnic cleansing plan on the part of the Israelis. It seems that in his warped logic; ethnic cleansing is worse that genocide. There is a plethora of historical and contemporary cases where civilians were - and still are - deliberately targeted in as many wars (to mention a few: Tibet; Darfur; Western Sahara; Bosnia); all of which resulted in countless dead and wounded among defenseless civilians; but of course none of these seemed as important for Mr. Downes; who preferred to focus his attention on what he views as Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians (if only he had at least considered as well the retaliatory ethnic cleansing performed by all Arab countries against their own Jewish communities; he could have offered a pretense of balance; but alas)... His biases got the best of him; and discredit his whole work in the process. Oh; and one more thing: he doesn't even address the all-important rules of International Humanitarian Law which - theoretically at least - protect civilians in time of war. For anyone seriously interested in studying the issue of protecting civilians against deliberate targeting in time of war; this book is useless. One is left with little choice but to look elsewhere.
