Laura Chmielewski provides an important new interpretation of the borderlands between French and English settlements in North America between 1688 to 1727.

The title for this work comes from the Puritan minister Increase Mather, who used the colorful metaphor to express his concern about the state of English Protestantism. Like many New Englanders, Mather's fears about the creeping influence of French Catholicism stemmed from English conflicts with France that spilled over into the colonial frontiers from French Canada. The most consistently fragile of these frontiers was the Province of Maine, notorious for attracting settlers who had "one foot out the door" of New England Puritanism. It was there that English Protestants and French Catholics came into frequent contact. The Spice of Popery: Converging Christianities on an Early American Frontier shows how, between the volatile years of 1688 to 1727, the persistence of Catholic people and culture in New England's border regions posed consistent challenges to the bodies and souls of frontier Protestants. Taking a cue from contemporary observers of religious culture, as well as modern scholars of early American religion, social history, material culture, and ethnohistory, Laura M. Chmielewski explores this encounter between opposing Christianities on an early American frontier. She examines the forms of lived religion and religious culture--enacted through gestures, religious spaces, objects, and discreet religious expressions--to elucidate the range of experience of its diverse inhabitants: accused witches, warrior Jesuits, unorthodox ministers, indigenous religious thinkers, voluntary and involuntary converts. Chmielewski offers a nuanced perspective of the structured categories of early American Christian religious life, suggesting that the terms "Protestant" and "Catholic" varied according to location and circumstances and that the assumptions accompanying their use had long-term consequences for generations of New Englanders. "Laura Chmielewski's The Spice of Popery is an inspired contribution to our understanding of 'entangled Christianities' in early America--erudite, thorough, and eminently readable." --Edwin G. Burrows, Distinguished Professor of History, Brooklyn College, City University of New York "In her beautifully written and richly researched study, Laura Chmielewski provides an important new interpretation of the borderlands between French and English settlements in North America. She persuasively argues that this boundary was far more permeable than we have imagined, for despite prejudices and hostilities on both sides, these frontier colonists adapted and adopted many of their enemy's cultural and religious patterns. Connections were made, kinships formed, and histories were shared, and what they--and we--once thought of as a firm barrier turns out to be a middle ground of exchange and synthesis. Anyone interested in early American history should read this book." --Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History, Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY

Presents an historical analysis of the Salem witch trials, examining the factors that may have led to the mass hysteria, including a possible occurrence of ergot poisoning, a frontier war in Maine, and local political rivalries.

The period from 1690 to 1763 was a time of intense territorial competition during which Indigenous peoples remained a dominant force. British Nova Scotia and French Acadia were imaginary places that administrators hoped to graft over the ancestral homelands of the Mi’kmaq, Wulstukwiuk, Passamaquoddy, and Abenaki peoples. Homelands and Empires is the inaugural volume in the University of Toronto Press’s Studies in Atlantic Canada History. In this deeply researched and engagingly argued work, Jeffers Lennox reconfigures our general understanding of how Indigenous peoples, imperial forces, and settlers competed for space in northeastern North America before the British conquest in 1763. Lennox’s judicious investigation of official correspondence, treaties, newspapers and magazines, diaries, and maps reveals a locally developed system of accommodation that promoted peaceful interactions but enabled violent reprisals when agreements were broken. This outstanding contribution to scholarship on early North America questions the nature and practice of imperial expansion in the face of Indigenous territorial strength.

Providing a succinct yet comprehensive introduction to the history of the Atlantic world in its entirety, The Atlantic Experience traces the first Portuguese journeys to the West coast of Africa in the mid-fifteenth century through to the abolition of slavery in America in the late-nineteenth century. Bringing together the histories of Europe, Africa and the Americas, this book supersedes a history of nations, foregrounds previously neglected parts of these continents, and explores the region as a holistic entity that encompassed people from many different areas, ethnic groups and national backgrounds. Distilling this huge topic into key themes such as conquest, trade, race and migration, Catherine Armstrong and Laura Chmielewski's chronological survey illuminates the crucial aspects of this cutting edge field.

Through its wide geographical and chronological scope, Protestant Empires advances a novel perspective on the nature and impact of the Protestant Reformations.

Scholars have long recognized that Jonathan Edwards loved the Bible. But preoccupation with his role in Western "public" life and letters has resulted in a failure to see the significance of his biblical exegesis. Douglas A. Sweeney offers the first comprehensive history of Edwards' interpretation of the Bible.