In Who Should Rule at Home? Joyce D. Goodfriend argues that the high-ranking gentlemen who figure so prominently in most accounts of New York City's evolution from 1664, when the English captured the small Dutch outpost of New Amsterdam, to the eve of American independence in 1776 were far from invincible and that the degree of cultural power they held has been exaggerated. The urban elite experienced challenges to its cultural authority at different times, from different groups, and in a variety of settings.

Goodfriend illuminates the conflicts that pitted the privileged few against the socially anonymous many who mobilized their modest resources to creatively resist domination. Critics of orthodox religious practice took to heart the message of spiritual rebirth brought to New York City by the famed evangelist George Whitefield and were empowered to make independent religious choices. Wives deserted husbands and took charge of their own futures. Indentured servants complained or simply ran away. Enslaved women and men carved out spaces where they could control their own lives and salvage their dignity. Impoverished individuals, including prostitutes, chose not to bow to the dictates of the elite, even though it meant being cut off from the sources of charity. Among those who confronted the elite were descendants of the early Dutch settlers; by clinging to their native language and traditional faith they preserved a crucial sense of autonomy.

About the Author

Joyce D. Goodfriend is Professor of History at the University of Denver. She is the author of Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664-1730, editor of Revisiting New Netherland: Perspectives on Early Dutch America, and coeditor of Going Dutch: The Dutch Presence in America, 1609-2009.

Reviews

Besides using standard sources, the author effectively made use of various religious accounts. These include Moravian journals to illustrate aspects of women's history. Outstanding.

* Choice *

Goodfriend's overarching thesis is elegant yet subtle.... Careful social analysis provides historians with fresh incentives to connect the historiographical and narrative dots.

* William and Mary Quarterly *

Elegantly written and exhaustively researched.... Goodfriend effectively undercuts older, simplistic views of New Yorkers as grasping merchants or a 'factious people.'.... Historians of British New York will appreciate [Who Should Rule at Home?]'s deep research; its attention to Christianity, race, and ethnicity; and its discovery of the subtle forms of resistance to authority.

* The Journal of American History *

In her well-researched study, Goodfriend situates herself in the historiography of early America as well as of the American Reovlution by uncovering what, other than political ideology, motivated New Yorkers to confront authority and try to rule themselves.

* American Historical Review *

Goodfriend shows that in some ways individual endeavours had greater impacts than more spectacular events.

* The English Historical Review *


Awards
Winner of Hendricks Book Award 2019 (United States) and Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title 2017 and Dixon Ryan Fox Manuscript Prize 2016 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9781501764578
Author Joyce D. Goodfriend
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm