| Title | : | The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0394757793 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780394757797 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 192 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1986 |
The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction Reviews
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I recall the teaching of American history in the public schools attended before high school as the inculcation of a secular religion, a simple narrative studded with iconic events and uplifting interpretations promoting the creed of American exceptionalism. The creeds of this faith are heard, ever and again, from most commentators and politicians, conservative and liberal. Presumably, my teachers didn't know any better.
The ones in high school, fortunately, did. All of them apparently had some graduate training in history, a few were working on their doctorates. Some were moderates, politically speaking, a few were left of center. All check out now, me having had the years to read a lot of history, as being intellectually honest and genuinely concerned with introducing us to the field as a serious, self-critical study.
Bailyn's lectures, constituting the introduction to a much larger work, then in progress, concern the problematics of immigration to what became the United States of America during the colonial period, a topic often glossed with oversimplification in the standard texts, if not blindered. Examples of such blindering include the usual devaluation of the contributions of non-white native inhabitants and imported slaves. So, too, the overemphasis on the New England colonial cultures, usually identified with the Pilgrims and Puritans, and their predominantly Protestant character, at the expense of due attention paid the the regions to the south and their, often very different, histories. In all, his greater work promises to be a substantial demythologization of and enormous contribution to American historiography. -
I first got word of this book as I began listening to Jack Rakove's recorded lectures for his colonial and revolutionary America course, which is available for download on ItunesU. If I remember properly, Dr. Rakove classifies Bailyn's book as an early example of "Atlantic history" (a familiar term to most American history professors/students/nerds). He also juxtaposes it with David Hackett Fisher's book "Albion's Seed" (which, seeing as I haven't read it, I'll say no more about).
Having read the few other reviews of this book, I have noted the major complaints:
- Focuses too much on England (i.e. "Anglocentric")
- Focuses too little on just about everyone else (Africans, Indians, women, etc.)
I think that all of these criticisms are true: Bailyn does spend the majority of this book's three collected lectures talking about pretty much all things English as it related to the New World in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and it would certainly be better if he discussed more the groups who, at least until the cultural turn of the 1960s, had been virtually neglected in the corpus of American historical writing. That being said, these complaints are simply not as alarming as some reviewers have made them out to be.
Why?
First, it's only natural to expect that Bailyn’s book will focus primarily on the British people and their counterpart colonies in the New World, for Bailyn's book, lest we forget, is titled "The Peopling of BRITISH North America" (emphasis mine). And in case the reader fails to inspect and consider the title closely, Bailyn's central thesis makes it explicitly clear that he will not discuss non-European groups to any great extent for reasons that are purely historiographical:
"[...] I would like to put forward four propositions, or broad lines of interpretation. They are tentative, and they are admittedly limited in coverage. They do not involve to any significant extent the movements of either the two non-Caucasian peoples--the Native Americans and the Africans--whose histories are so vital a part of the story. For, despite the mass of writing, much of it polemical, that is available on both of these groups, we know as yet relatively little about their histories; we have nothing like the density of information about them that is available for other groups" (19-20).
I simply cannot fault Bailyn for this move. Not only does he confront the limitation of his argument openly and early, he also makes an implicit call for more and better scholarship on these two groups of people who, in addition to the Europeans, were the most important players on the field of North America from the beginning of contact between all three. Personally, I'd rather an historian acknowledge his or her limitations in such a manner rather than produce shoddy scholarship that fails to provide accurate and insightful information, all for the sake of being more thorough or comprehensive (though, someone of Bailyn's caliber is not likely to produce "shoddy scholarship" at all; just examine his footnotes for these three, relatively short lectures).
Bailyn’s goal is straightforward and honest: he wants to bring together all of the recent scholarship about the transmigration of peoples to British North America in an attempt to create a few general--albeit viable and conclusive--remarks about how this peopling process worked. And in this respect, I think that Bailyn succeeds.
What I think is too little remarked upon in the reviews is the quality of Bailyn's prose. I think it's important to remember that these were originally presented as lectures, and at times I read them as such. Occasionally his sentences will drag, but more often than not they offer a near perfect rhythm and syntax, all of which results in a pleasurable reading experience. For good examples of what I mean, just read aloud the opening paragraphs of each lecture. In some sense, they function like Bailyn's version of an epic poem's invocation, yet instead of infusing the poet with the power of the muse, these opening descriptions give readers a powerful image with which to envision more clearly the issues that Bailyn is probing throughout.
Finally, it's hard not to love Bailyn's four propositions. Disagree with them you may, but this doesn’t change the fact that they are well articulated, well argued for, and give readers something to walk away with. Too often I close a history book and immediately try to recall the main arguments; when I fall short, it is endlessly frustrating. In the case of Bailyn's book, thankfully, he's done the work for me. -
This is a brief introduction to Bailyn's highly regarded "Voyagers to the West". The book is, as it states, a serious of transcribed lectures that Bailyn delivered to college undergrads. You can tell that these are lectures, but Bailyn has provided ample footnoting at the back of the book.
Understand that this is a short book. It should only take about a couple of hours (maybe less) to read. "Voyagers to the West" runs about 800 pgs, so you'd probably want to read this before that, just to make sure this is what you are interested in.
Bailyn uses four "propositions" to frame the themes of his lectures. The propositions boil down to the idea that the received wisdom we have about the peopling of the British colonies in America is wrong and that the process was more complex then we thought. I would refer those unfamiliar with this approach (that of framing "propostions" for historical inquiry), to the work of the Annales school in France (Marc Bloch, Phillipe Aries, etc).
Fans of David Hackett Fischer's "Albion's Seed" will want to check this one out.
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On so many levels this was extremely Anglocentric, and to a lesser degree plain old misogynistic. The "peopling" of North America by British "men and their families" actually depopulated the continent of 8 million people whom Bailyn barely mentions. Even if he wants to make a case that he's only concerned with the early modern migrations, it's disturbing that the stream of (forced) African migrants that numerically dwarfed that from Europe is only discussed in relation to the decline of indentured servitude.
Also, why does the book end with crazy German religious fundamentalists? I'm not sure it supports or even marginally relates to any of his main arguments.
Two stars though because Bailyn does a great job collecting statistical data about migrations and organizing and explaining it in a coherent manner. -
ARGH: WHAT ABOUT THE DE-PEOPLING?
Also it doesn't really mention the influence of Africans or American Indians. WTF?!
Also, also, the narrative is weirdly Hegelian. -
Not as interesting as the title made it sound.
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Bailyn describes “one of the greatest events in recorded history.”
In the last 500 years, about 50 million people have moved to the Western hemisphere from Europe and Africa.
The British government and upper classes (landlords) feared the outflow of workers and considered banning emigration to North America in the mid-18th century before the American Revolution.
There’s plenty of surprising detail in The Peopling of British North America.
Bailyn mentions that many of the British folks who traveled to North America in the 18th century came from London and its environs (mostly young men), and from Yorkshire in northern England and the Scottish Highlands (mostly whole families with kids).
If you think of American history as the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock, you’ve only taken the first baby step to understand where we came from.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com -
Excellent survey of the state of the field, and a fine series of insights regarding the demography of pre-Revolutionary America.
All books can be epitomized with a single word. For “Caleb Williams,” it’s “expostulated.” For “Peopling,” it’s “marchland.” -
Reads like lectures (which is what it was). Not as much on New England area as I'd hoped.
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Fascinating book!
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Long and detailed account of how Europeans came to America. Information that is not well publicized changed my understanding and view of history as it relates to living in the US today.
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Bailyn shows the demographic patterns of British migration across the Atlantic well, positing a provincial migration from Scotland and the English provinces, in which families migrated, drawn by land speculators who promised landholdings; and a metropolitan pattern, consisting mainly of young artisans and craftsmen departing from London and the surrounding area in response to colonial demands for labor; these latter would serve out indentures on arriving.
The three lectures are organized around 4 propositions:
1: “The peopling of British North America was an extension outward and an expansion in scale of domestic mobility in the lands of the immigrants’ origins, and the transatlantic flow must be understood within the context of these domestic mobility patterns. Ultimately, however, its development introduced a new and dynamic force in European population history, which permanently altered the traditional configuration.” (20).
2: “Examination of the settlement and development patterns for the whole of British North America reveals not uniformity, but highly differentiated processes, which form the context of the immigrants’ arrival. The fortunes of the arriving newcomers must be seen against this varied and shifting background.” (49-50)
3: “After the initial phase of colonization, the major stimuli to population recruitment and settlement were, first, the continuing need for labor, and second, land speculation. There were, as a result, two overlapping but yet distinctly different migration processes in motion throughout these years. Both linked America to Europe and Africa in a highly dynamic relationship and together account for much of the influx of people. But they drew on different socio-economic groups and involved different modes of integration into the society. And land speculation shaped a relationship between the owners and the workers of the land different from that which prevailed in Europe.” (60)
4: “American culture in this early period becomes most fully comprehensible when seen as the exotic far western periphery, a marchland, of the metropolitan European culture system” (112)
Notes
The fact that this work largely ignores the complementary UN-peopling - that is, the genocide and theft of indigenous land - is a grave mistake. Indeed, Bailyn often uses the language of uncultivated wilderness that is inaccurate and perpetuates Native erasure.
Bailyn posits that "the distinctive characteristics of British North American life, was the fact that by the turn of the 17th century the settlers in America – the creole, now indigenous population – had attained a state of self-conscious gentility incompatible with the violence and extravagance and disorder of life in a marchland… it was the juxtaposition of the two, the intermingling of savagery and developing civilization, that is the central characteristic of the world that was emerging in British America. Borderland violence and bizarre distensions of normal European culture patterns had become fused with a growing civility into a distinctive way of life.” (114)
But how unique is it to see sophistication and brutality living cheek to jowl? And, if the settlers really were developing a gentility in the early 18th century - when, exactly, did they become "barbarous"? (Perhaps this is the topic of Bailyn's "The Barbarous Years".) I take points 1-3, but point 4 appears to me to posit a reduction in civilization, an increased brutality that becomes a part of the national character by virtue of...? What, exactly? The hardscrabble environment and the difficulty of making a fortune? Clashes with Indigenous people? The development of Plantation slavery? If these things made these immigrants uncivilized, then was there anything unique about the 13 colonies?
On this same tack, where are the Caribbean colonies? Surely they would also have taken part in this culture? Indeed, all of the colonized Americas would have had some mix of gentility and brutality, in the minds of the colonizers, at least.
In summary, some useful stuff about migration patterns and the causes of colonization/settlement, but the final lecture is, imo, quite weak, and the absence of significant investigation into Indigenous and African roles in this story undermines the narrative. -
This small volume (a collection of three essays) offers a few propositions that Bailyn argues will help clarify our understanding of this massively complex and important transition in world history. Bailyn considers the forces driving the invaders, from those producing patterns of domestic mobility (which just extend naturally to the New World), to those explaining the heterogeneity of the development patterns in different parts of New World, to the contributions of the labor market and land speculation. There are great insights on these topics, albeit in a very conversational format (these were lectures, I think).
To me the deepest insight, while not entirely novel, is Proposition Four: "American culture in this early period becomes most fully comprehensible when seen as the exotic far western periphery, a marchland, of the metropolitan European culture system." We recognize this pattern when we think about the conquest of the American West - communities organized around garrisons; mindlessly violent wars with Native people; wars of territorial control with invaders from other nations; wars among invaders from the same nation for water, land and other resources; a brutal struggle to eke an existence out of wilderness; wild and extravagant behavior that would not be tolerated in the settled part of the country. Watch (or read) "Deadwood", or read "Under the Banner of Heaven" for a recent taste of this extravagance. Patricia Limerick covers this intellectual turf for the American West in "The Legacy of Conquest" (published the year after this book, in 1987), and she notes that "the west" really began with the forests just beyond the beaches at Plymouth and Jamestown, but of course her real focus is on the places where the water runs out. Bailyn's key insight is to argue that all the traits that characterize the conquest of the American West were burned into the American psyche in the 17th and 18th centuries. What is so surprising is that we've constructed a nation that retains at its core this "mingling of primitivism and civilization".
Bailyn closes by noting that this mingling "was an essential part of early American culture... What did it mean to Jefferson, slave owner and philosophe, that he grew up in this far western borderland world of Britain, looking out from Queen Anne rooms of spare elegance onto a wild, uncultivated land? We can only grope to understand." Yipes. -
I am not sure how I would have taken this book if I hadn't already read one of the later constituent parts. This short introduction is both of those things: short and an introduction. It's also an edited version of a lecture series, and it's also an historical argument that gets more fully articulated in two later volumes of about 700 pages each, so it's no surprise that they get short shrift here.
The basic idea to the whole project is to try to understand what it means to understand the "peopling of British North America" from about 1600-1800. So what first has to happen is to understand what this means. To define this, Bailyn gives us a few things to consider. He wants us to imagine what a satellite would be able to know and show us if it flew overhead the American continent in the mid 17th century. Now of course, we can't do that, but it helps to make sense more about what he's actually trying to capture here, and what limits there are to this goal. Too much of history is spent around singular events and the biographies of specific individuals, and even in the most eventful of lives, the most of the time is spent doing very little except the regularities of everyday life. So this huge mass of information is impossible to record, and through that impossibility we end up with only a partial understanding of life in that time and place. The second idea he wants to think about is that life in the United States (what would become that is) was not really meant to be anything any different than an extension of life in whatever place a person coming to America is coming from. Different goals and motivations abound, but they brought with them a life and culture wholly created and formed in that other place, and for the most part they attempted to implant it here. He also wants us to think about the rings of Saturn. From far away they appear solid, in definite shapes, and cohesive, but up close they become granular and atomic. That's what history is. A solid picture from afar (that also creates a false sense of singularity) and a much more chaotic and individuated picture up close. Lastly, his history takes on the allusion of William the Conqueror's Domesday Book. Bailyn wants to know what made up this land, and seeks to find out, and at least mark where that becomes impossible.
It's just the argument behind the project, but it provides the ethos as you move forward. -
I wanted to learn about how and why some of my early English ancestors came to America. This book give me a very nice insight into both of my questions.
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A worthwhile introduction to some overarching theories about the nature of population movement in the colonial era. I read this for a grad school class and thought he did a good job at making clear generalizations about the periods, although some are obviously lacking a bit of backup. He makes four propositions, which essentially form his thesis...
1) that movement of Europeans to American was just part of a lifestyle of movement that already existed in Europe.
2) That there was a large variety of backgrounds and reasons for which people came here.
3) There were 2 big motivations for people to move here... 1) the need for labor and 2) land speculation
4) America should be viewed as sort of a borderland or periphery of Europe, not as a separate thing
He makes some compelling arguments, the book is to the point and well written but there are a couple of things that prevented me from giving it 5 stars... First, he deliberately leaves out African slaves and Native Americans and speeds through mainland European groups in favor of British. Second, some of his generalizations are a bit too general. For example, he claims that Boston was a nursery, Philadelphia was a human warehouse and New York was a staging center for expeditions into the interior. Based on other readings for the class, there isn't any clear way to distinguish between the three. In all three cases, most people who landed there ended up moving into the interior over time. -
Great little book that looks at the population trends behind the growth of North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Doesn't sound all that sexy, but it was very interesting to read about the tremendous differences between the kinds of people that came to New England (primarily families who created a self-sustaining population very quickly) vs. the middle and southern states (primarily young men as indentured servants, so the population didn't replicate quickly, making for a more unstable society and the need to continue to import labor, ultimately contributing to the expansion of slavery). It was also interesting to hear someone make a fairly compelling argument that very little of the immigration was based on the desire for religious freedom, in contrast to what I learned in school. It's a selective recommendation I offer, given that not that many people would be interested at all, but if you were, it's a good book.
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Bailyn's "Introduction" is consistently learned, insightful, and accessible. My primary interest in reading was "British," with "peopling" a secondary concern and only a slight interest in "North America." Thus, some passages-- for example, those anatomizing particular regions-- struck me sometimes as dully factual, overly repetitive or extensive, etc. But, Bailyn always swings back and forth between his core concepts such that I was, after a less interesting passage, invigorated by discussion of, say, civility and the brutal western periphery-- the marchland-- of Britain. I suspect readers with interests different from my own would likewise find that the discussion regularly reengages them just as they're attention begins to fade. At his best, as in the intro and conceit of each chapter, Bailyn showcases the brilliantly imaginative thinking that can and should drive historical investigation.
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Clear, concise and thoroughly enjoyable history of the European and African settlement of North America. Bailyn does not discuss the uprooting of Native civilizations so much as he discusses the peopling from overseas, but that is the stated purpose of this book; anything else would be a very different title.
The three essays which make up this slender volume are candid and chatty - and very illuminating. An excellent introduction to his much larger and more difficult 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Voyagers to the West, this is a quick and fascinating read. Highly recommended. -
This collection of three lectures from Bernard Bailyn is an excellent introduction to the Peopling of North America. Bailyn provides a fantastic overview based on four specific concepts for the movement of people from Europe and Africa to the North American continent. At times, Bailyn veers from an established point to introduce a somewhat incoherent fact, but this happens only rarely.
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I thought about not rating it since it's just the intro, but it was quite interesting and this hardcover edition is very nice looking. I'm looking forward to reading Voyagers to the West, and I suppose that's what a good intro should do.
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Used in H337 Colonial America
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The facts and conclusions are rather vague. The author seems most interested in asking rhetorical questions than providing little concrete answers.
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This is a trailer or highlight reel for the rest of Bailyn's studies of the invasion of british north america.
