Could you identify a sausage gun if you had to? How about a plate warmer or a well-sweep? Any idea how the term log-rolling really originated? Alice Morse Earle (1851-1911), a prolific popular historian and the first American to chronicle everyday life and customs of the colonial era, describes what these and many other obscure utensils were and how they were used. She also conveys a vivid picture of home production of textiles, colonial dress, transportation,...

Today more than half of all Americans make their homes in cities, and the ease of modern transportation causes the lives of many more to be affected by town conditions. Our national history has been that of transition from a predominantly rural and agricultural way of living to one in which the city plays a major role. Both materially and psychologically urban factors govern much of American life. Their origins are therefore of more than passing interest....

Between 1500 and 1800, the world was transformed. The peoples of Europe, Africa, and America, brought together in an often violent colonial process, created a New World and transformed the old. These lectures examine the relations of the colonies with the native people, the relations between the British colonies and the colonial outposts of Spain, France, and the Netherlands, and how British attempts at colonial governance led, ultimately, to resistance,...