 In a thoughtful, erudite survey of colonial history, Butler
traces the formation of many of America's modern social
characteristics in the crucible of pre-Revolutionary
society...Americans today think of the colonial period, if
at all, as a time remote from modern America, in which
society was unimaginably different from ours. Butler argues
persuasively that America during the late colonial period
(1680-1776) rapidly developed a variegated culture that
displayed distinctive traits of modern America, among them
vigorous religious pluralism, bewildering ethnic diversity,
tremendous inequalities of wealth, and a materialistic
society with pervasively commercial values...A sweeping,
well-researched analysis of the transformative changes
wrought by immigration, war, and cultural change in colonial
America.
--Kirkus Reviews
The decades in between the Puritan-dominated 17th century
and the market-revolutionizing early 19th century were a
formative period, [Butler] suggests, during which a
distinctly 'American' society--and, as Butler would have it,
the first 'modern' society--developed...Butler's original
analysis is important reading on 18th-century America; he
shows that the colonies were developing distinct ways of
spending, building, praying, decorating and politicking even
then--a cultural revolution that anticipated the political
revolution that was to follow.
--Publishers Weekly
In Becoming America, Jon Butler examines the less examined
period of American colonial history from 1680 to 1770 to
argue that distinctive traits of modern America were already
in place…The book makes a strong case for the early
modernity of American society, helps to delineate the
evolution of American identity, and serves as a good
overview for the period.
--Joel Hodson, American Studies International
Writing in a deceptively simple style, Butler builds
creatively on complex historiographical debates and
masterfully synthesizes vast amounts of specialized
research, both by himself and by others…Indeed, one of the
book's great virtues is its accessibility, and both its
exclusively American focus and its stress on concrete social
processes contribute to the clarity and forcefulness of the
account. By all reasonable measures, this is a highly
successful synthesis that manages to be at once enjoyable
and provocative.
--Ruth H. Bloch, William and Mary Quarterly
Butler divides his approach to the period into well- studied
categories before considering the implications for the
Revolutionary era. His chapters on "Peoples," "Economy" and
"Politics" provide a helpful synthesis of recent
historiography without the tedious name dropping that
characterizes so much historiographical literature…Butler
will prompt us all to think more clearly about the
structural relationships that evolved during these years.
--John Ritchie Garrison, The Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography
A terrific book, filled with human interest and the kind of
detail that makes abstractions meaningful. A commendable
weaving together of themes and materials from political
history, social history, and cultural history. Butler offers
us a firm foundation for further exploration.
--Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University
An engrossing, important book. It promises to provoke and
inspire. Jon Butler's Becoming America is an ambitious
examination of Britain's mainland North American colonies
between 1680 and 1770. The scope of the book is really quite
broad; it covers nearly a century of development across
thirteen widely varying colonies, and considers six
formidably large aspects of early American life: migration
and settlement, politics, economics, religion, the material
world, and the origins of the Revolution. Butler's book
revolves around, and advances, a coherent, critical thesis:
that 'the vast social, economic, political, and cultural
cthis period 'created a distinctively 'American'
society.' The surprise of the book is that this society was
modern; indeed, as Butler claims, it was the world's 'first
modern society.' The world Butler portrays in his often
vivid, and always highly readable prose is an America of
fantastic diversity, an America of many languages, different
customs, and dissenting practices of piety. Butler's
Becoming America is a world of bustling politics and
economic revolutions.
--Jill Lepore, Boston University
In yet another provocative challenge to the conventional
wisdom, Jon Butler argues for the 'modernity' of
eighteenth-century America. He provides a lively and
readable account of how transatlantic commerce,
participatory politics, religious pluralism, and ethnic and
racial diversity put colonials on the path to 'becoming
Americans' during the decades before the Revolution.
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