In this abundantly illustrated volume, Bernard Herman provides a history of urban dwellings and the people who built and lived in them in early America. In the eighteenth century, cities were constant objects of idealization, often viewed as the outward manifestations of an organized, civil society. As the physical objects that composed the largest portion of urban settings, town houses contained and signified different aspects of city life, argues Herman. Taking a material culture approach, Herman examines urban domestic buildings from Charleston, South Carolina, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as well as those in English cities and towns, to better understand why people built the houses they did and how their homes informed everyday city life. Working with buildings and documentary sources as diverse as court cases and recipes, Herman interprets town houses as lived experience. Chapters consider an array of domestic spaces, including the merchant family's house, the servant's quarter, and the widow's dower. Herman demonstrates that city houses served as sites of power as well as complex and often conflicted artifacts mapping the everyday negotiations of social identity and the display of sociability.

"Explains how in the decade following the Civil War, baseball became segregated because its leaders wanted to grow its presence and appeal to Southerners, and wanted to professionalize it. The result was the exclusion of black players that lasted until 1947"--

Originally published in 1988. This study examines women religious in the American community in the first half of the nineteenth century. The primary aim of this research was to determine who the women were who entered eight religious communities, and whether there was any clear relationship between who they were and their choice of community. This title will be of interest to students of history and religious studies.

Reissuing works originally published between 1973 and 1997, Routledge Library Editions: 19th Century Religion (18 volumes) offers a selection of scholarship covering historical developments in religious thinking. Topics include the origin of Catholicism in America, sexual liberation and religion in Europe, and the emergence of Atheism in Victorian England. This set also includes collections of sermons and essays from some of the most influential preachers of the nineteenth century.

This book introduces America to the Black Reconstruction politicians who fought valiantly for the civil rights of all people—important individuals who have been ignored by modern historians as well as their contemporaries. Between 1865 and 1876, about 2,000 blacks held elective and appointive offices in the South, but these men faced astounding odds. They were belittled as corrupt and inadequate by their white political opponents, who used legislative trickery, libel, bribery, and brutal intimidation of their constituents to rob these black lawmakers of their base of support. Before Obama: A Reappraisal of Black Reconstruction-Era Politicians comprises two volumes that examine the leadership and contributions of black politicians during the Reconstruction era—diverse men whose efforts during Reconstruction should not be overlooked. Each biographical essay examines how each individual contributed to the Reconstruction Era and fostered the development of a parallel civil society within black communities, what influence his actions had on the future of blacks in politics, and why he has been ignored. This work also serves to set the record straight about these black politicians who are often scapegoated for the overall failure of the Reconstruction.