| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Sydney V. James. The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island: A Study of Institutions in Change. (Revisiting New England: The New Regionalism.) Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England. 2000. Pp. xi, 336. $35.00.

A long time ago, there were numerous books like Sydney V. James's. Scholars once concentrated on institutional development to the exclusion of other historical forces, and only in the last decades has social history trumped the more narrow construction of the past. For historians who are now deeply immersed in the history of people, this book is nothing less than jarring because it reminds us just how far we have strayed from the original historical path. Yet, although the book is a difficult read, its importance cannot be denied. 1

According to James, Rhode Island did not turn out the way its founders expected, since their original ideas faded when confronted with the reality of life in Rhode Island. Nevertheless, the colony thrived despite ominous predictions by its detractors. Freedom encouraged diversity and diversity encouraged challenges to the existing order, thus preventing any single theological doctrine or governing body from holding sway. As a result, local government and delegated authority became part of a permanent process. If instability rocked the colony between 1644 and 1694 and the central government (as a creation of the original towns) remained weak, Rhode Island still resisted the incursions of its neighbors and overcame the economic disruptions caused by the Anglo-Dutch wars. . . .

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