| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the Journal of Social History online. About 164 words from this article are provided below; about 532 words remain.

If you are an individual subscriber to the Journal of Social History, 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.
If you are not a subscriber to the Journal of Social History, you can:: • subscribe here.
• 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 Journal of Social History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to the journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.1 | The History Cooperative

REVIEWS

Circles and Lines: The Shape of Life in Early America. By John Demos (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. xi plus 98 pp. $19.95).

Every once in a while it is refreshing to put aside detailed academic monographs in favor of shorter studies that are full of suggestive concepts and ideas. John Demos's Circles and Lines represents such a brief and provocative volume. His text is based on three lectures that he delivered in 2002 as part of Harvard University's William E. Massey Sr. lecture series in the History of American Civilization. Demos set as his objective an admittedly speculative exploration of the movement from what he describes as the circular (more traditional) to the linear (more modern) approaches to living. In doing so, he first focuses on circular life experiences that characterized the colonial period in English North America, then on the transitional years of Revolutionary America, and finally on the full emergence and enshrinement of linear life experiences in nineteenth-century America

. . .

There are about 532 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.