This book uncovers what might seem to be a dark side of the American dream: the New World from the viewpoint of those who decided not to stay. At the core of the volume are the life histories of people who left New England during the British Civil Wars and Interregnum; 1640–1660. More than a third of the ministers who had stirred up emigration from England deserted their flocks to return home. The colonists’ stories challenge our perceptions of early settlement and the religious ideal of New England as a "City on a Hill." America was a stage in their journey; not an end in itself.Susan Hardman Moore first explores the motives for migration to New England in the 1630s and the rhetoric that surrounded it. Then; drawing on extensive original research into the lives of hundreds of migrants; she outlines the complex reasons that spurred many to brave the Atlantic again; homeward bound. Her book ends with the fortunes of colonists back home and looks at the impact of their American experience.Of exceptional value to studies of the connections between the Old and New Worlds; Pilgrims contributes to debates about the nature of the New England experiment and its significance for the tumults of revolutionary England.
#178387 in Books 2003-09-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.16 x 1.03 x 5.52l; 1.21 #File Name: 0300101694420 pages
Review
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Documentary history of the Russian RevolutionBy M. A. KrulThis collection titled "Voices of Revolution" is a selection from the many letters; resolutions; requests; appeals; complaints and invective sent to various state organs and important politicians from the period of the Russian Revolution by 'regular people'. Farmers; soldiers; deserters; workers; and so on all came together in that period to elect their own representatives and form their own councils; and these councilmembers in turn responded to the many confused events of those days with letters and resolutions supporting or opposing specific policies or politicians. Equally; individual farmers; laborers etc. wrote letters; requests; insults or even poetry to popular newspapers as well as party leaders in the hope of getting their voices heard.In between all these documents; translated into English but also available online in their Russian originals; the editor Mark Steinberg provides a short but effective history of the period to give context to the many voices of the revolution. He does this fairly and accurately; and the many-sidedness of popular opinion in those days belies any one-sided view of the revolution. Of course it is never entirely clear how representative these individual and collective letters and appeals are; but judging by the various election results and the repetition of the same complaints and issues in the letters; the two match quite well. That makes this book an invaluable insight into the views of the common man in Russia; 1917.
