The Portuguese Inquisition is often portrayed as a tyrannical institution that imposed itself on an impotent society. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book challenges this myth by arguing that the Inquisition was integral to colonial society, reinforcing European social and religious values that were recreated in colonial Brazil.
The Portuguese Inquisition is often portrayed as a tyrannical institution that imposed itself on an impotent society. Drawing on extensive archival re...
Occasionally scholars discover lost primary sources that change our understanding of a place or period. James Richards's day book is such a find. This 325-year-old ledger had been passed down through generations of a New England family and was stored in a pillowcase in a dusty attic when it was handed to the historian James E. Wadsworth.
For years, James Richards, a prosperous and typical colonial farmer, tracked nearly five thousand transactions, involving more than six hundred individuals and stretching from Charlestown to Barnstable. Richards and his neighbors were bound together...
Occasionally scholars discover lost primary sources that change our understanding of a place or period. James Richards's day book is such a find. T...
