Shakespeare was incredibly popular in nineteenth-century America, where the theater was both a source of entertainment and debating ground for those with differing political opinions.

Just as popular as the Bard's works-or perhaps more so-were the many burlesques and parodies of Shakespeare, especially in the 1840s, when relationships between the United States and Great Britain were strained at best.

The use of Shakespearian parodies to score political points was common on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United Sates, the great Shakespearian rivalry erupted in New York's Astor...

The daily lives of most colonial New Englanders were much more colorful and exotic than the drab, pious picture many of us have in mind. Daily Life in Colonial New England exposes as myth much of what we might believe about this era and reveals surprising truths--for example, that sex was openly discussed in Colonial times and was regarded as a welcome necessity of married life, and that women had more legal and marital rights than they did in the 19th century.

The book describes topics such as the legal and sexual rights of women, the extent of infant mortality; the...