Description
Book SynopsisIn My Power tells the story of letter writing and communications in the creation of the British Empire and the formation of the United States. In an era of bewildering geographical mobility, economic metamorphosis, and political upheaval, the proliferation of letter writing and the development of a communications infrastructure enabled middle-class Britons and Americans to rise to advantage in the British Atlantic world.
Everyday letter writing demonstrated that the blessings of success in the early modern world could come less from the control of overt political power than from the cultivation of social skills that assured the middle class of their technical credentials, moral deserving, and social innocence. In writing letters, the middle class not only took effective action in a turbulent world but also defined what they believed themselves to be able to do in that world. Because this ideology of agency was extended to women and the youngest of children in the eighte
Trade Review
"An admirably readable, wide-ranging, yet streamlined historical narrative that integrates letters into the American story and opens the way for others to do more nuanced work." * American Historical Review *
"The ambition and perspective of In My Power command attention. Though the history of early America has been told and retold, it deserves this retelling." * Journal of American History *
"In My Power is ambitious and full of brilliant observations on a subject that has not until now received comprehensive treatment." * Toby Ditz, Johns Hopkins University *
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Communications and Empire
Chapter 2: Letter Writing and Commercial Revolution
Chapter 3: Migration and Empire
Chapter 4: Letter Writing and Consumer Revolution
Chapter 5: Revolution and War
Chapter 6: Universalism and the Epistolary Divide
Conclusion
Afterword: The Burden of Early American History
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
