Border Life

Experience and Memory in the Revolutionary Ohio Valley

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Colonial Period (1600-1775)
Cover of the book Border Life by Elizabeth A. Perkins, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Elizabeth A. Perkins ISBN: 9780807863831
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: October 6, 2017
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Elizabeth A. Perkins
ISBN: 9780807863831
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: October 6, 2017
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

In this original and sensitive ethnography of frontier life, Elizabeth Perkins recovers the rhythms of warfare, subsistence, and cultural encounter that governed existence on the margins of British America. Richly detailed, Border Life captures the intimate perceptive universe of the men and women who colonized Kentucky and southern Ohio during the Revolutionary era.

In reconstructing the mental world of border inhabitants, Perkins draws on a pioneering source in oral history. In the 1840s, the Reverend John Dabney Shane conducted hundreds of interviews with surviving western settlers, gathering their recollections on topics ranging from food preparation to encounters with Native Americans. Although Shane's interviews have long been hailed as a rich, if complicated, source for western history, Perkins is the first scholar to consider them critically, as texts for cultural analysis.

Border Life also deepens our understanding of how ordinary people struggled to make sense of their own lives within the stream of history. Discovering a significant disjuncture between recorded memory and written history in accounts of the early frontier, Perkins shows how historians and popular authors reshaped the messy complexities of remembered experience into heroic--and radically simplified--conquest narratives.

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

In this original and sensitive ethnography of frontier life, Elizabeth Perkins recovers the rhythms of warfare, subsistence, and cultural encounter that governed existence on the margins of British America. Richly detailed, Border Life captures the intimate perceptive universe of the men and women who colonized Kentucky and southern Ohio during the Revolutionary era.

In reconstructing the mental world of border inhabitants, Perkins draws on a pioneering source in oral history. In the 1840s, the Reverend John Dabney Shane conducted hundreds of interviews with surviving western settlers, gathering their recollections on topics ranging from food preparation to encounters with Native Americans. Although Shane's interviews have long been hailed as a rich, if complicated, source for western history, Perkins is the first scholar to consider them critically, as texts for cultural analysis.

Border Life also deepens our understanding of how ordinary people struggled to make sense of their own lives within the stream of history. Discovering a significant disjuncture between recorded memory and written history in accounts of the early frontier, Perkins shows how historians and popular authors reshaped the messy complexities of remembered experience into heroic--and radically simplified--conquest narratives.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book James J. Kilpatrick by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book A History of the Oratorio, 4 volumes, Omnibus E-book by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Native and National in Brazil by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book The Basis of Progressive Evolution by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book The Three Graces of Val-Kill by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Southeastern Geographer by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Carolina Cradle by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Blue Ridge 2020 by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Hot Springs, Arkansas by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book The New York Intellectuals, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Pragmatism and the Political Economy of Cultural Evolution by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book The Transnational Mosque by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book Spin Control by Elizabeth A. Perkins
Cover of the book The Life and Times of General Andrew Pickens by Elizabeth A. Perkins
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