Charles Woodmason, an Anglican minister in South Carolina in 1766, described the region as a "stage of debauchery" in which polygamy was "very common," "concubinage general," and "bastardy no disrepute." These depictions of colonial North America's sexual culture sharply contradict the stereotype of Puritanical abstinence that persists in the popular imagination.In Sexual Revolution in Early America, Richard Godbeer boldly overturns conventional wisdom about the sexual values and customs of colonial Americans. His eye-opening historical account spans two centuries and most of British North America, from New England to the Caribbean, exploring the social, political, and legal dynamics that shaped a diverse sexual culture. Drawing on exhaustive research into diaries, letters, and other private papers, as well as legal records and official documents, Godbeer's absorbing narrative uncovers a persistent struggle between the moral authorities and the widespread expression of popular customs and individual urges.Godbeer begins with a discussion of the complex attitude that the Puritans had toward sexuality. For example, although believing that sex could be morally corrupting, they also considered it to be such an essential element of a healthy marriage that they excommunicated those who denied "conjugal fellowship" to their spouses. He next examines the ways in which race and class affected the debate about sexual mores, from anxieties about Anglo-Indian sexual relations to the sense of sexual entitlement that planters held over their African slaves. He concludes by detailing the fundamental shift in sexual culture during the eighteenth century towards the acceptance of a more individualistic concept of sexual desire and fulfillment. Today's moral critics, in their attempts to convince Americans of the social and spiritual consequences of unregulated sexual behavior, often harken back to a more innocent age; as this groundbreaking work makes clear, America's sexual culture has always been rich, vibrant, and contentious.

    These were perhaps the most turbulent years of British history with reverberations down the centuries. Austin Woolrych captures the drama and the passion, the momentum of events and the force of contingency. He brilliantly interweaves the history of the three kingdoms and peoples, gripping the reader with the fast-paced yet always balanced story.

    Two warriors. And the Highland prophecy that bound them both to battle, glory, and the two fiery women they dared to love. Now the adventure begins in Kathleen Givens's sensual, pulse-quickening tale of seventeenth-century Scotland.It's a time of portents, when a tree split by the fiery crack of lightning foretells the history of a land. And two lovers have been chosen by destiny to make the legend come true. She is Ellen Graham, a highborn lass who swears never to marry except for passion. He is James MacCurrie, the mysterious Highlander with dark blue eyes who rescues her from the point of a sword. But the very fate that has brought them together also contrives to keep them apart. For this is also an age of brother fighting brother, when a warrior's cold will can still the warmth of his own loving heart

    Carl Trueman presents a major study of the key elements of John Owen's writings and his theology. Presenting his theology in its historical context, Trueman explores the significance of Owen's work in ongoing debates on seventeenth century theology, and examines the contexts within which Owen's theology was formulated and the shape of his mind in relation to the intellectual culture of his day - particularly in contemporary philosophy, literature and theology. Examining Owen's theology from pneumatological, political and eschatological perspectives, Trueman highlights the trinitarian structure of his theology and how his theological work informed his understanding of practical Christianity. With the current resurgence of interest in seventeenth century Reformed theology amongst intellectual historians, and the burgeoning research in systematic theology, this book presents an invaluable study of a leading mind in the Reformation and the historical underpinnings for new systematic theology.

    Illustrated throughout with elegant period woodcuts, the poems range from the most traditional and formal ( James Russell Lowell's "The First Snow Fall" and John Greenleaf Whittier's "Snow-Bound") to the more contemporary and diverse (Rafael Campo's "Begging for Change in Winter" and Gertrude Schnackenberg's "The Paperweight"). Each poem has a special gift to offer readers on a frosty night. Other contributors include: Wallace Stevens ("A Mind of Winter" is taken from his poem "The Snow Man"), Rosanna Warren, Emily Dickinson, Richard Wilbur, Angelina Weld Grimke, Amy Lowell, Charles Simic, Peter Davison, Mary Oliver, Sylvia Plath, Marge Piercy, James Merrill, Maxine Kumin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Anne Sexton, Anne Bradstreet, and Jay Wright. Acclaimed poet Donald Hall contributes a celebratory introduction; he lives in New Hampshire. Robert Atwan is the editor of the Best American Essays series.

    The book explores the unprecedented series of rebellions which took place in Cornwall between 1497 and 1648, traces the connections which existed between those revolts and the contemporary Cornish perception of themselves as a separate 'people', and argues that Cornish history must be viewed within a 'British', rather than a purely English context. West Britons will be required reading for all those who are engaged in the contemporary political and historical debate over 'Britishness'. The book also includes transcriptions of a number of previously unpublished documents, useful to teachers and their students, and a list of some 300 Cornish Royalist officers, of special interest to Civil War enthusiasts and genealogists.

    

    This first volume, which traces the beginning of the conflict, establishes the basic narrative of "the Puritan Revolution" with objectivity, meticulous attention to detail, and prodigious learning. With a new introduction by Christopher Hill.

    By analyzing Starkey's extraordinary laboratory notebooks, the authors show how this American "chymist" translated the wildly figurative writings of traditional alchemy into quantitative, carefully reasoned laboratory practice—and then encoded his own work in allegorical, secretive treatises under the name of Eirenaeus Philalethes. The intriguing "mystic" Joan Baptista Van Helmont—a favorite of Starkey, Boyle, and even of Lavoisier—emerges from this study as a surprisingly central figure in seventeenth-century "chymistry." A common emphasis on quantification, material production, and analysis/synthesis, the authors argue, illustrates a continuity of goals and practices from late medieval alchemy down to and beyond the Chemical Revolution. For anyone who wants to understand how alchemy was actually practiced during the Scientific Revolution and what it contributed to the development of modern chemistry, Alchemy Tried in the Fire will be a veritable philosopher's stone.

    The study reveals new meanings of gender and identity relating to the experiences of men and women in early modern German history.

    . . the best modern biography of the man. Why isn't there a great movie about Sir Walter Raleigh? His life had everything." -Los Angeles TimesTall, dark, handsome, and damnably proud, Sir Walter Raleigh was one of history's most romantic characters. He founded the first American colony, gave the Irish the potato, even trifled with the Virgin Queen's affections. To his enemies, he was an arrogant liar, deserving of every one of his thirteen years in the Tower of London. Regardless of means, Raleigh's accomplishments are unquestionable: he was the epitome of the English Renaissance man. Raleigh Trevelyan has traveled to each of the principal places where Raleigh adventured-Ireland, the Azores, Roanoke, and the Orinoco-finding new insights into Raleigh's extraordinary life. His research gives a freshness and immediacy to this detailed, convincing portrait of one of the most compelling figures from the Elizabethan era.

    Based on massive archival research, it examines the army not only as a military institution but also as a political, social and economic organism. Guy Rowlands asserts that the key to the development of Louis XIV's armed forces was the king's determination to acknowledge and satisfy the military, political, social and cultural aspirations of his officers, and maintain the solid standing of the Bourbon dynasty.