An expert's final word on institutional development and change in colonial Rhode Island.

A richly illustrated survey of the history and culture of Rhode Island Jews.

12 Between Private and Public Spheres: Liberty as Cultural Property in Eighteenth-Century British America -- Notes -- List of Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W

Rhode Island has a long history of constitutional governance. Beginning in 1636, Rhode Island's constitution has been shaped by revolution, nation-building, tumult, and further changes wrought by everything from neo-liberalism to gay rights. The result has been a living document reflecting conflicting and changing values, making the Rhode Island constitution an essential resource for understanding the cultural history of this state. In The Rhode Island State Constitution Patrick T. Conley and Robert J. Flanders provide an outstanding constitutional and historical account of the state's governing charter. In addition to an overview of Rhode Island's constitutional history, it provides an in-depth, section-by-section analysis of the entire constitution, detailing the many significant changes that have been made since its initial drafting. This treatment, along with a table of cases, index, and bibliography provides an unsurpassed reference guide for students, scholars, and practitioners of Rhode Island's constitution. Previously published by Greenwood, this title has been brought back in to circulation by Oxford University Press with new verve. Re-printed with standardization of content organization in order to facilitate research across the series, this title, as with all titles in the series, is set to join the dynamic revision cycle of The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.

Thanks to the efforts of Roger Williams and the Rev. John Clarke Rhode Island was the first secular state of its time. There was religious freedom and no effective control by Britain over the colony. In this environment a free running economy developed based on international trading. During the time before the Revolution Newport was one of the biggest ports on the eastern seaboard. The British shut the port down for three years during the Revolution but the town recovered thanks to the French who arrived in 1780 with money. The economy recovered but Newport was again depressed during the War of 1812. There was an industrial revolution in Rhode Island in the 19th century that started with Slater Mill which put the Providence based merchants in a position to compete effectively with the Newport merchants. Newport shifted to a tourist and manufacturing economy.

No era in American history has been more fascinating to Americans, or more critical to the ultimate destiny of the United States, than the colonial era. Between the time that the first European settlers established a colony at Jamestown in 1607 through the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the outlines of America's distinctive political culture, economic system, social life, and cultural patterns had begun to emerge. Designed to complement the high school American history curriculum as well as undergraduate survey courses, "Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History" captures it all: the people, institutions, ideas, and events of the first three hundred years of American history. While it focuses on the thirteen British colonies stretching along the Atlantic, Colonial America sets this history in its larger contexts. Entries also cover Canada, the American Southwest and Mexico, and the Caribbean and Atlantic world directly impacting the history of the thirteen colonies. This encyclopedia explores the complete early history of what would become the United States, including portraits of Native American life in the immediate pre-contact period, early Spanish exploration, and the first settlements by Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, and English colonists. This monumental five-volume set brings America's colonial heritage vibrantly to life for today's readers. It includes: thematic essays on major issues and topics; detailed A-Z entries on hundreds of people, institutions, events, and ideas; thematic and regional chronologies; hundreds of illustrations; primary documents; and a glossary and multiple indexes.

“One of the more significant recent pieces of scholarship in this area . . . essential reading for all students of early America.” —Journal of American History Departing from traditional approaches to colonial legal history, Mary Sarah Bilder argues that American law and legal culture developed within the framework of an evolving, unwritten transatlantic constitution that lawyers, legislators, and litigants on both sides of the Atlantic understood. The central tenet of this constitution—that colonial laws and customs could not be repugnant to the laws of England but could diverge for local circumstances—shaped the legal development of the colonial world. Focusing on practices rather than doctrines, Bilder describes how the pragmatic and flexible conversation about this constitution shaped colonial law: the development of the legal profession; the place of English law in the colonies; the existence of equity courts and legislative equitable relief; property rights for women and inheritance laws; commercial law and currency reform; and laws governing religious establishment. Using as a case study the corporate colony of Rhode Island, which had the largest number of appeals of any mainland colony to the English Privy Council, she reconstructs a largely unknown world of pre-Constitutional legal culture. “The book is rich in social history as well, with the evolving status of women and institutional religion providing much of the legal grist.” —Choice

Annotation st1\: · {behavior:url(£ieooui) } Unparalleled coverage of U.S. political development through a unique chronological frameworkEncyclopedia of U.S. Political History explores the events, policies, activities, institutions, groups, people, and movements that have created and shaped political life in the United States. With contributions from scholars in the fields of history and political science, this seven-volume set provides students, researchers, and scholars the opportunity to examine the political evolution of the United States from the 1500s to the present day. With greater coverage than any other resource, the Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History identifies and illuminates patterns and interrelations that will expand the reader & BAD:rsquo;s understanding of American political institutions, culture, behavior, and change. Focusing on both government and history, the Encyclopedia brings exceptional breadth and depth to the topic with more than 100 essays for each of the critical time periods covered. With each volume covering one of seven time periods that correspond to key eras in American history, the essays and articles in this authoritative encyclopedia focus on thefollowing themes of political history:The three branches of governmentElections and political partiesLegal and constitutional historiesPolitical movements and philosophies, and key political figuresEconomicsMilitary politicsInternational relations, treaties, and alliancesRegional historiesKey FeaturesOrganized chronologically by political erasReader & BAD:rsquo;s guide for easy-topic searching across volumesMaps, photographs, and tables enhance the textSigned entries by a stellar group of contributorsVOLUME 1Colonial Beginnings through Revolution1500 & BAD:ndash;1783Volume Editor: Andrew Robertson, Herbert H. Lehman CollegeThe colonial period witnessed the transformation of thirteen distinct colonies into an independent federated republic. This volume discusses the diversity of the colonial political experience & BAD:mdash;a diversity that modern scholars have found defies easy synthesis & BAD:mdash;as well as the long-term conflicts, policies, and events that led to revolution, and the ideas underlying independence. VOLUME 2The Early Republic1784 & BAD:ndash;1840Volume Editor: Michael A. Morrison, Purdue UniversityNo period in the history of the United States was more critical to the foundation and shaping of American politics than the early American republic. This volume discusses the era of Confederation, the shaping of the U.S. Constitution, and the development of the party system.

Unparalleled coverage of U.S. political development through a unique chronological framework Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History explores the events, policies, activities, institutions, groups, people, and movements that have created and shaped political life in the United States. With contributions from scholars in the fields of history and political science, this seven-volume set provides students, researchers, and scholars the opportunity to examine the political evolution of the United States from the 1500s to the present day. With greater coverage than any other resource, the Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History identifies and illuminates patterns and interrelations that will expand the reader’s understanding of American political institutions, culture, behavior, and change. Focusing on both government and history, the Encyclopedia brings exceptional breadth and depth to the topic with more than 100 essays for each of the critical time periods covered. With each volume covering one of seven time periods that correspond to key eras in American history, the essays and articles in this authoritative encyclopedia focus on the following themes of political history: The three branches of government Elections and political parties Legal and constitutional histories Political movements and philosophies, and key political figures Economics Military politics International relations, treaties, and alliances Regional histories Key Features Organized chronologically by political eras Reader’s guide for easy-topic searching across volumes Maps, photographs, and tables enhance the text Signed entries by a stellar group of contributors VOLUME 1 ?Colonial Beginnings through Revolution ?1500–1783 ?Volume Editor: Andrew Robertson, Herbert H. Lehman College ?The colonial period witnessed the transformation of thirteen distinct colonies into an independent federated republic. This volume discusses the diversity of the colonial political experience—a diversity that modern scholars have found defies easy synthesis—as well as the long-term conflicts, policies, and events that led to revolution, and the ideas underlying independence. VOLUME 2 ?The Early Republic ?1784–1840 ?Volume Editor: Michael A. Morrison, Purdue University No period in the history of the United States was more critical to the foundation and shaping of American politics than the early American republic. This volume discusses the era of Confederation, the shaping of the U.S. Constitution, and the development of the party system. VOLUME 3 ?Expansion, Division, and Reconstruction ?1841–1877 ?Volume Editor: William Shade, Lehigh University (emeritus) ?This volume examines three decades in the middle of the nineteenth century, which witnessed: the emergence of the debate over slavery in the territories, which eventually led to the Civil War; the military conflict itself from 1861 until 1865; and the process of Reconstruction, which ended with the readmission of all of the former Confederate States to the Union and the "withdrawal" of the last occupying federal troops from those states in 1877. VOLUME 4 ?From the Gilded Age through the Age of Reform ?1878–1920 ?Volume Editor: Robert Johnston, University of Illinois at Chicago With the withdrawal of federal soldiers from Southern states the previous year, 1878 marked a new focus in American politics, and it became recognizably modern within the next 40 years. This volume focuses on race and politics; economics, labor, and capitalism; agrarian politics and populism; national politics; progressivism; foreign affairs; World War I; and the end of the progressive era. VOLUME 5 ?Prosperity, Depression, and War ?1921–1945 ?Volume Editor: Robert Zieger, University of Florida Between 1921 and 1945, the U.S. political system exhibited significant patterns of both continuity and change in a turbulent time marked by racist conflicts, the Great Depression, and World War II. The main topics covered in this volume are declining party identification; the "Roosevelt Coalition"; evolving party organization; congressional inertia in the 1920s; the New Deal; Congress during World War II; the growth of the federal government; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency; the Supreme Court’s conservative traditions; and a new judicial outlook. VOLUME 6 ?Postwar Consensus to Social Unrest ?1946–1975 ?Volume Editor: Thomas Langston, Tulane University This volume examines the postwar era with the consolidation of the New Deal, the onset of the Cold War, and the Korean War. It then moves into the 1950s and early 1960s, and discusses the Vietnam war; the era of John F. Kennedy; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Civil Rights Act; Martin Luther King and the Voting Rights Act; antiwar movements; The War Powers Act; environmental policy; the Equal Rights Amendment; Roe v. Wade; Watergate; and the end of the Vietnam War. VOLUME 7 ?The Clash of Conservatism and Liberalism ?1976 to present ?Volume Editor: Richard Valelly, Swarthmore College ?The troubled Carter Administration, 1977–1980, proved to be the political gateway for the resurgence of a more ideologically conservative Republican party led by a popular president, Ronald Reagan. The last volume of the Encyclopedia covers politics and national institutions in a polarized era of nationally competitive party politics and programmatic debates about taxes, social policy, and the size of national government. It also considers the mixed blessing of the change in superpower international competition associated with the end of the Cold War. Stateless terrorism (symbolized by the 9/11 attacks), the continuing American tradition of civil liberties, and the broad change in social diversity wrought by immigration and the impact in this period of the rights revolutions are also covered.

This interdisciplinary study presents compelling evidence for a revolutionary idea: that to understand the historical entrenchment of gentility in America, we must understand its creation among non-elite people: colonial middling sorts who laid the groundwork for the later American middle class. Focusing on the daily life of Widow Elizabeth Pratt, a shopkeeper from early eighteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, Christina J. Hodge uses material remains as a means of reconstructing not only how Mrs Pratt lived, but also how these objects reflect shifting class and gender relationships in this period. Challenging the 'emulation thesis', a common assumption that wealthy elites led fashion and culture change while middling sorts only followed, Hodge shows how middling consumers were in fact discerning cultural leaders, adopting genteel material practices early and aggressively. By focusing on the rise and emergence of the middle class, this book brings new insights into the evolution of consumerism, class, and identity in colonial America.