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Errands into the Metropolis offers a dramatic new interpretation of the texts and contexts of early New England literature. Jonathan Beecher Field inverts the familiar paradigm of colonization as an errand into the wilderness to demonstrate, instead, that New England was shaped and re-shaped by a series of return trips to a metropolitan London convulsed with political turmoil. In London, dissidents and their more orthodox antagonists contended for colonial power through competing narratives of their experiences in the New World. Dissidents showed a greater willingness to construct their narratives in terms that were legible to a metropolitan reader than did Massachusetts Bay's apologists. As a result, representatives of a variety of marginal religious groups were able to secure a remarkable level of political autonomy, visible in the survival of Rhode Island as an independent colony.

Through chapters focusing on John Cotton, Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, John Clarke, and the Quaker martyrs, Field traces an evolving discourse on the past, present, and future of colonial New England that revises the canon of colonial New England literature and the contours of New England history. In the broader field of early American studies, Field's work demonstrates the benefits of an Atlantic perspective on the material cultures of print. In the context of religious freedom, Errands into the Metropolis shows Rhode Island's famous culture of toleration emerging as a pragmatic response to the conditions of colonial life, rather than as an idealistic principle. Errands into the Metropolis offers new understanding of familiar texts and events from colonial New England, and reveals the significance of less familiar texts and events. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

fantastic book
Professor Fields' ear and eye for detail is excellent.His accounts of the interactions between London and New England are nuanced and refined.An essential addition to the history.

Best book on the subject ever, period.
No academic working in America today has the sense of narrative of Dr. Field. This book is a triumph. ... Read more

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Chapters: Samantha Smith, Cameron Crowe, Jonathan Krohn, Emily Hughes, Ally Sheedy, Christopher Paolini, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, S. E. Hinton, Mattie Stepanek, Marguerite Henry, Augusta Jane Evans, Jemima Condict, Robert Lowry, Ben Shapiro, Lucretia Maria Davidson, Akiane Kramarik, Alec Greven, Noah Mccullough, Nancy Yi Fan, Kyle Williams. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 104. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Samantha Reed Smith (June 29, 1972 August 25, 1985) was an American schoolgirl from Manchester, Maine who became famous in the Cold War-era United States and Soviet Union. In 1982, Smith wrote a letter to the newly appointed Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Yuri Andropov, and received a personal reply which included a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted. Smith attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a "Goodwill Ambassador", and became known as "America's Youngest Ambassador" participating in peacemaking activities in Japan. She wrote a book and co-starred in a television series, before her death at the age of 13 in the Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 plane crash. When Yuri Andropov succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as leader of the Soviet Union in November 1982, the mainstream Western newspapers and magazines ran numerous front page photographs and articles about him. Most coverage was negative and tended to a perception of a new threat to the stability of the Western world. Andropov had been the Soviet Ambassador to Hungary during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and began his tenure as Soviet leader by strengthening the powers of the KGB, and by suppressing dissidents. Andropov declared, "the struggle for human rights was a part of a wide-ranging imperialist plot to undermine the foundation of the Soviet state." Much international t...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=162279 ... Read more

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Nicely detailed depiction of this populous area at mid-century. Our reproduction of this 1864 Johnson map shows both county and township boundaries. Black and white map, printed on 18 x 24 paper, folded. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Lincoln Chafee, Lincoln Almond, Donald Carcieri, Sullivan Ballou, Jonathan Scott, William Henry Vanderbilt Iii, Robert a Paquin Iii, Robert Tingle, Claudine Schneider, George H. Utter, Nathan F. Dixon Iii, Adin B. Capron, Thomas G. Turner, Charles C. Van Zandt, Benjamin T. Eames, Jesse H. Metcalf, Ambrose Kennedy, Frederick Lippitt. Excerpt:Adin Ballou Capron (January 9, 1841 March 17, 1911) was a U.S. Representative from Rhode Island . Early life and military career Born in Mendon, Massachusetts , Capron attended the Woonsocket High School and Westbrook Seminary, near Portland, Maine . He settled in Stillwater, Rhode Island, and engaged in milling and dealing in grain. He enlisted as a sergeant in the Second Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry, in May 1861. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major July 11, 1861, and commissioned lieutenant in September 1861. He served in the Signal Corps until the close of the Civil War , having been commissioned first lieutenant on March 3, 1863, and subsequently promoted to the rank of captain andmajor by brevet . Political career He served as member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives 1887-1892 and served as speaker in 1891 and 1892. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1892 to the Fifty-third Congress . Capron was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fifth and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1911). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1910. He resumed his former business activities in Stillwater, Rhode Island, where he died March 17, 1911. He was interred in Swan Point Cemetery , Providence, Rhode Island . References (URLs online) United States House of Representatives This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of ... ... Read more

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Chapters: William West, Christopher Del Sesto, David Howell, Jeremiah E. O'connell, Jonathan Russell Bullock, Thomas Tillinghast, Ernest C. Torres, Ronald Rene Lagueux, Richard Ward Greene, Maureen Mckenna Goldberg, Francis Flaherty, William P. Robinson Iii. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: William West (c. 1733 1814) was an American militia general in the American Revolutionary War, Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Deputy Governor of Rhode Island and an anti-federalist leader. William West's house in Scituate, Rhode Island, built in 1775West was born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, in about 1733 to John West and Alice Sweet. West's father was a large landowner and his mother sold "jonnycakes" during the American Revolution. He was a descendant of Pilgrim George Soule. In about 1755 West married Eleanor Brown and served in the French and Indian War around this time. He eventually moved from North Kingstown to Scituate, Rhode Island, and purchased a 200-acre (0.81 km) farm which Governor Stephen Hopkins had previously owned. West set up a prosperous tavern in 1758 and was an active farmer and molasses trader. Soon after moving to Scituate, West became a deputy (representative) and was also elected as a representative of the town in a general convention held at East Greenwich, September 26, 1786. Between 1760 and 1785, West was elected 12 times as a representative. At the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, Colonel West was placed second in command of the Rhode Island Militia under Esek Hopkins, and West served as a brigadier general from 1775 to 1777. From January to March of 1776, West assumed command at Rhode Island (Aquidneck Island) which was then under siege from the British warships in Narragansett Bay. As general, his...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4132844 ... Read more