Rhode Island: A History (States and the Nation)

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book Rhode Island: A History (States and the Nation) by William McLoughlin, W. W. Norton & Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: William McLoughlin ISBN: 9780393348668
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: June 17, 1986
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: William McLoughlin
ISBN: 9780393348668
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: June 17, 1986
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

With a Historical Guide prepared by the editors of the American Association for State and Local History.

High atop the Rhode Island capitol in Providence, a bronze likeness of "The Independent Man" keeps watch over a state that historically has put the ideal of individual liberty before all others. Like many ideals, this one was freighted with many meanings. As the colony grew in the seventeenth century, the belief in religious liberty and freedom of conscience espoused by its founder, Roger Williams, led to the development of political liberty and practical democracy. In the eighteenth century, that dedication to individualism made Rhode Islanders into businessmen of the first order, willing to take the big risk in hope of a bigger reward. Their land being poor in natural resources, Rhode Islanders turned to trade; accumulating wealth from traffic in rum and slaves, they built in Newport and Providence small but elegant copies of Georgian England, and worried more about taxes and currency than about religion. When they felt poorly served by British policies, they became ready revolutionaries and led in the founding of a new nation. After the Civil War, their children took individual liberty to mean economic laissez-faire, ushering in the state's golden age when Rhode Island senator Nelson Aldrich became known as the "general manager" of the United States.

Through countless changes in the twentieth century, the ideal still survives and asks old questions of new generations of Rhode Islanders from many ethnic backgrounds: How best to reconcile the rights of minorities with the rule of the majority, and how best to secure the individual liberty and economic opportunity that Roger Williams and Moses Brown would have understood so well?

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

With a Historical Guide prepared by the editors of the American Association for State and Local History.

High atop the Rhode Island capitol in Providence, a bronze likeness of "The Independent Man" keeps watch over a state that historically has put the ideal of individual liberty before all others. Like many ideals, this one was freighted with many meanings. As the colony grew in the seventeenth century, the belief in religious liberty and freedom of conscience espoused by its founder, Roger Williams, led to the development of political liberty and practical democracy. In the eighteenth century, that dedication to individualism made Rhode Islanders into businessmen of the first order, willing to take the big risk in hope of a bigger reward. Their land being poor in natural resources, Rhode Islanders turned to trade; accumulating wealth from traffic in rum and slaves, they built in Newport and Providence small but elegant copies of Georgian England, and worried more about taxes and currency than about religion. When they felt poorly served by British policies, they became ready revolutionaries and led in the founding of a new nation. After the Civil War, their children took individual liberty to mean economic laissez-faire, ushering in the state's golden age when Rhode Island senator Nelson Aldrich became known as the "general manager" of the United States.

Through countless changes in the twentieth century, the ideal still survives and asks old questions of new generations of Rhode Islanders from many ethnic backgrounds: How best to reconcile the rights of minorities with the rule of the majority, and how best to secure the individual liberty and economic opportunity that Roger Williams and Moses Brown would have understood so well?

More books from W. W. Norton & Company

Cover of the book 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know about Math and the Arts by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson (Updated and Expanded) by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Rilke and Andreas-Salomé: A Love Story in Letters by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Yellow Jack: A Novel by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Micromotives and Macrobehavior by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Anxious and What You Can Do to Change It (Second) by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book So Far from God: A Novel by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories: The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (Non-slipcased edition) (Vol. 2) (The Annotated Books) by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Dread: Poems by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine by William McLoughlin
Cover of the book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by William McLoughlin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy