The city-state of Boston : the rise and fall of an Atlantic power, 1630-1865 / Mark Peterson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peterson, Mark A., 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City-states.

History.

Boston (Mass.)--History.

Boston (Mass.).

City-states--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Massachusetts--Boston.

Physical Description:

xviii, 741 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some color), portraits ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2019]

Summary:

In the vaunted annals of America's founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary "city upon a hill" and the "cradle of liberty" for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired cliches, The City-State of Boston highlights Boston's overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a pathbreaking and brilliant new history of early America. Following Boston's development over three centuries, Mark Peterson discusses how this self-governing Atlantic trading center began as a refuge from Britain's Stuart monarchs and how--through its bargain with slavery and ratification of the Constitution - it would tragically lose integrity and autonomy as it became incorporated into the greater United States. Drawing from vast archives, and featuring unfamiliar alongside well-known figures, such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and John Adams, Peterson explores Boston's origins in sixteenth-century utopian ideals, its founding and expansion into the hinterland of New England, and the growth of its distinctive political economy, with ties to the West Indies and southern Europe. By the 1700s, Boston was at full strength, with wide Atlantic trading circuits and cultural ties, both within and beyond Britain's empire. After the cataclysmic Revolutionary War, "Bostoners" aimed to negotiate a relationship with the American confederation, but through the next century, the new United States unraveled Boston's regional reign. The fateful decision to ratify the Constitution undercut its power, as Southern planters and slave owners dominated national politics and corroded the city-state's vision of a common good for all. Peeling away the layers of myth surrounding a revered city, The City-State of Boston offers a startlingly fresh understanding of America's history.

Contents:

Boston emerges: from hiding place to hub of the Puritan Atlantic

The world in a shilling: building the city-state's political economy

Boston pays tribute: the political trials of an expanding city-state

Theopolis Americana: Boston and the Protestant international

"God deliver me and mine from the government of soldiers"

Cutting off the circulation: Phillis Wheatley and Boston's revolutionary crisis

John Adams, Boston's diplomat: apostle of balance in a world turned upside down

The failure of Federalism: Boston's French years

From merchant princes to Lords of the Loom: remaking Boston's political economy

On the German road to Athens: Boston at a crossroads

Dismembering the body: Boston's spatial fragmentation

"There was a Boston once"

The making of US history and the disappearance of the city-state of Boston.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691179995

0691179999

OCLC:

1032650586