| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 257 words from this article are provided below; about 561 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Martin Bruegel. Farm, Shop, Landing: The Rise of a Market Society in the Hudson Valley, 1780–1860. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. 2002. Pp. xiii, 305. Cloth $64.95, paper $21.95.

"Ten years ago we had nothing," the Catskill Recorder declared in 1828, "now we have everything" (p. 159). Building on this observation, Martin Bruegel argues that the 1820s were the crucial period in the rise of a market-based society in the middle Hudson Valley. In the early nineteenth century, only a minority of the farmers in Greene and Columbia counties, which face each other across the Hudson River, shipped goods to market, and they lived in "an uncertain universe," inventing "strategies to reduce the insecurities that nature thrust upon them" (p. 39). By the 1830s, however, most farmers in the two counties were actively engaged in the market, producing hay or oats or cheese or wool, and local manufacturers were sending leather, shoes, textiles, and bricks into the stream of commerce. No longer did people's diaries and ledgers reveal anxiety about the material standard of living. Moreover, traditional values—such as those stressing reliance on community and family in times of crisis—were giving way to the emergent ideology of liberal individualism. As the Recorder editorialized, rather than rely on a "public subscription" and "the liberality of their fellow citizens" to replace property destroyed by a fire, "every man ... [who] has not the ability to sustain the losses ... should be at all times insured" (p. 92). . . .

There are about 561 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.