This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which...

"A series of brilliant historical portraits combine to create a self-portrait of one of our greatest historians. With characteristic vitality and brilliance, Bernard Bailyn revisits the major phases of his long, pathbreaking career and offers readers new insights into history and his distinctive approach to understanding it. From his early work on the New England merchants through his groundbreaking study of the American Revolution and on into his...