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"Jews and Gentiles in Early America is the best account I have seen about Jews in America in this era. William Pencak's research is extensive and the informative depth with which he addresses important political issues is unsurpassed. His analysis is unfailingly sophisticated and virtually unchallengeable. He paints with a broad stroke, putting his narrative and interpretations not only in a wide American context, but also in an international scope. . . . [A]n exceptional contribution to American Jewish history and colonial history in general." -Frederic Cople Jaher, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana "Bill Pencak is no stranger either to novel topics or unconventional ideas. In this eminently readable and substantive contribution to the history of Jews in early America, Pencak has once again pushed the boundaries of debate in original and constructive ways." ---Edith Gelles, Stanford University "William Pencak has produced a learned and informative volume on the nature of Jewish-Gentile relations in colonial America. The book's reconstruction of Jewish life in colonial New York, Newport, Charleston, Savannah, and Philadelphia is based on a broad array of primary and secondary source materials that persuasively demonstrate the fact that, despite a truly remarkable level of social acceptance, colonial Jews simultaneously encountered bouts of rejection. Scholars and general readers alike will be indebted to Dr. Pencak for deepening our understanding of the complex and often contradictory ways in which non-Jews related to their Jewish neighbors during this formative period in the nation's history." ---Dr. Gary P. Zola, Executive Director of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and Associate Professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Jews and Gentiles in Early America offers a uniquely detailed picture of Jewish life from the mid-seventeenth century through the opening decades of the new republic. Though the first national census in 1790 counted barely three thousand Jews, the Jewish community was nevertheless far more important in the history of early America than their numbers suggest, author William Pencak reveals in this fascinating chronicle of an often-overlooked aspect of American Jewish history. Pencak approaches his topic from the perspective of early American, rather than strictly Jewish, history. Rich in colorful narrative and animated with scenes of early American life, Jews and Gentiles in Early America tells the story of the five communities-New York, Newport, Charleston, Savannah, and Philadelphia-where most of colonial America's small Jewish population lived. How did these communities rise and fall? How did they interact with the larger gentile population? Pencak's exploration of popular anti-semitism in the pre-Revolutionary era describes the persistence of prejudices derived from traditional European society, and his abundantly detailed community studies explore the forms these prejudices took in colonial America, some of which continue to this day.

Often viewed in isolation, the Jolliet and Marquette expedition in fact took place against a sprawling backdrop that encompassed everything from ancient Native American cities to French colonial machinations. Mark Walczynski draws on a wealth of original research to place the explorers and their journey within seventeenth-century North America. His account takes readers among the region’s diverse Native American peoples and into a vanished natural world of treacherous waterways and native flora and fauna. Walczynski also charts the little-known exploits of the French-Canadian officials, explorers, traders, soldiers, and missionaries who created the political and religious environment that formed Jolliet and Marquette and shaped European colonization of the heartland.

A multifaceted voyage into the past, Jolliet and Marquette expands and updates the oft-told story of a pivotal event in American history.

The Year’s Best Articles from the Leading On-Line Source of New Research on the American Revolution and Founding Eras
The Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume 2020, presents the journal’s best historical research and writing over the past calendar year. The volume is designed for institutions, scholars, and enthusiasts to provide a convenient overview of the latest research and scholarship in American Revolution and Founding Era studies. The thirty-six articles in the 2020 edition include: 
Bernard E. Griffiths: Trumpeter Barney of the Queen’s Rangers, Chelsea Pensioner—and Freed Slave by Todd W. Braisted
The Declaration of Independence: Did John Hancock Really Say that about his Signature?—and Other Signing Stories by J. L. Bell
Les Habitants: Collaboration and Pro-American Violence in Canada, 1774–1776 by Sebastian van Bastelaer
Misadventures in the Countryside: Escape from a British Prison Ship by Katie Turner Getty
The Revolutionary Memories of New York Loyalists: Thomas Jones and William Smith, Jr. by Cho-Chien Feng
The East India Company and Parliament’s “Fateful Decision” of 1767 by Steven Neill
Massachusetts Privateers During the Siege of Boston by Alexander Cain
The Constitution Counted Free Women and Children—And It Mattered by Andrew M. Schocket, with Kinzey M. McLaren-Czerr and Colin J. Spicer
How Magna Carta Influenced the American Revolution by Jason Yonce
Putting a Price on Loyalty: Mary Loring’s List of Losses by John Knight

The year’s best articles from the leading on-line source of new research on the Revolution and Founding eras

The Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume 2024, presents the journal’s best historical research and writing over the past calendar year. The volume is designed for institutions, scholars, and enthusiasts to provide a convenient overview of the latest research and scholarship in American Revolution and Founding Era studies. 

Contents
By Stratagem and Hard Fighting: The Improbable Capture of Eleven British Ships by Mark R. Anderson
Remember Baker: A Green Mountain Boy’s Controversial Death and Its Consequences by Mark R. Anderson
John Hancock’s Politics and Personality in Ten Quotes by Brooke Barbie
The Return of Samuel Dyer: An Attempted Assassination in Revolutionary Boston by J. L. Bell
The Secrets of Samuel Dyer by J. L. Bell
Two Encounters: Captain Abraham Van Dyck, the ”Negro Man,” and Prince Pitkin by Benjamin L. Carp
The French Army in Williamsburg, Virginia, 1781–1782 by Michael Cecere
The Delcastle Cannonball by Walter A. Chiquione
Thomas Paine on Popular Government in America: Evolution of a Radical’s Thinking by Jett Conner
How the (First) West Was Won: Federalist Treaties that Reshaped the Frontier by Brady J. Crytzer
George Washington’s Information War by Benjamin George
British Soldiers Wounded at Eutaw Springs by Don N. Hagist
Emily Geiger’s Fabulous Ride by C. Leon, Harris, Harriet Imrey, Conner Runyan
Thomas Jefferson and the Conditions of Good History: Writing About the American Revolution by Andrew M. Holowchak
Mercy Otis Warren: Revolutionary Propagandist by Jonathan House
Captain James Morris of the Connecticut Light Infantry by Chip Langston
Danger at the Breach by Doug MacIntyre
Attended with Disagreeable Consequences: Cross-Border Shopping for Loyalist Provisions, 1783–1784by Stuart Lyall Manson
Smallpox Threatens an American Privateer at Sea by Christian McBurney
“The Modern American Wallace:” Relics, Revolutions, and Revolutionaries by Shawn David McGhee
“Those Noble Qualities”: Classical Pseudonyms as Reflections of Divergent Republican Value Systems by Shawn David McGhee
George Washington’s “Rules of Civility”: An Early American Literary Mystery by Shawn David McGhee
Reframing George Washington’s Clothing at the Second Continental Congress by Shawn David McGhee
John Adams and Nathanael Greene Debate the Role of the Military by Curtis F. Morgan, Jr.
The Perfidious Benjamin Church and Paul Revere by Louis Arthur Norton
Algernon Sidney and the American Revolution by David Otersen
Eutaw Springs and the Ambiguity of Victory by David Price
Charles Lee—The Continental Army’s Most Prolific Essayist General by Gene Procknow
Charles Lee’s First Inklings of Fractious American Political Battles by Gene Procknow
The Highs and Lows of Ethan Allen’s Reputation as Reported by Revolutionary-Era Newspapers by Gene Procknow
“Earned By Veteran Intrepidity”: Spencer’s Ordinary, June 26, 1781 by Conor Robison
William Walker Crosses Kings Ferry by Michael J. F. Sheehan
Early Presidential Elections: The Questionable Use of Electors to Correct Voter Imbalances by Marvin L. Simner
The Purpose of the Electoral College: A Seemingly Endless Controversy by Marvin L. Simner
Captain Luke Day: A Forgotten Leader of ”Shays’s Rebellion” by Scott M. Smith
Engaging the Glasgow by Eric Sterner
Smallpox by Inoculation: The Tragedy of New York’s Rosewell Beebe by Philip D. Weaver
The “Western Forts” of the 1783 Treaty of Paris by Richard J. Werther
Clark versus Livingston: Pettiness, Paper Money, and Elections by Eric Wise
Burlington 1776: The Forgotten Opportunity by Colin Zimmerman

This is the first complete English translation of Journey into Northern Pennsylvania and the State of New York by Michel-Guillaume St. Jean de Crèvecoeur. It presents the rich reflections and tales of an 18th-century Frenchman who lived and traveled in America for 27 years. Soldier-of-fortune, gentleman farmer, friend of Washington and Franklin, Crèvecoeur describes his natural surroundings with a charm and delight unrivaled by any writer but Thoreau. In this book we follow two men, a narrator and his friend, as they witness unfamiliar Native American rituals and visit frontier settlements along the Hudson River. Interwoven are fanciful impressions of the Indigenous communities of the region and sagas of adventure that stretch credibility. More than a straightforward narrative of travel, the book has the ideological goal of attacking the corruption of Old World civilization and contrasting it with a vision of harmony, abundance, and democracy resulting from the American revolution. The work has not previously been translated into English.