This book explores the connection between the changing social context of colonial New England and the emergence of political unrest in the years before the American Revolution. Unlike studies that have examined revolutionary activity in major colonial towns, where it was most visible, Professor Nobles's study focuses on the sources of revolutionary behavior in the countryside. He examines the social and political development of Hampshire County from the seventeenth through the eighteenth century and seeks to explain why people who had remained apparently indifferent to the political crisis...

Gregory Nobles shows how American leaders, beginning with Washington and Jefferson, pursued a policy of national expansion and development that enabled the United States to become the dominant power on the North American continent. Within this broad framework, he explores the settlers' diverse and complex interactions with Indians as enemies, allies, and trading partners. The result is a sensitive, perceptive account of the patterns of contact and conquest on America's frontiers over the course of four centuries.