Liberty Books

This book, which was written in the 19th century, is as vital and significant today as the Constitution-and perhaps more important to the modern reader because of changes mad within the court system (but not the legal system) in the past century.

This is a very short book, but covers a very important and neglected part of the limitations of Government power: the trial by jury.

Jury trial rights predate the foundation of the United States, beginning with the signing of the Magna Carta in England in 1215. So the principles of jury trial were long established in the British Common Law upon which US Federal Law and most states (all but Louisiana, which is based upon Napoleonic Law.)

"FOR more than six hundred years that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215 there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws."

The purpose of a selected jury is to represent the population or country as a whole to judge the defendant, who represents the rights of the people. (i.e. the people as a whole, represented by the jurors, decide whether or not they desire the freedom to perform whatever actions are on trial.)

The purpose of trial by jury, is to permit a "trial by country," opposed to a "trial by Government." Thus, in the final analysis, it is up to the people to determine which laws have been set by their Government they truly wish to obey, and not the Government'swill alone.

This is not the model, which they taught you in school, and it is at variance with the statements frequently made in court by judges. (Whose purpose in a jury trial is not to judge, but to provide order safety and advice.)

With an informed jury, no law may be enforced which the jury finds reprehensible, regardless of the opinions of the judges, legislators or police. Juries have the final say in whether or not a law is just and enforceable.

Truly, if this were otherwise, Tyranny is the result. If the Government declares the law, and the Government determines whether or not the law is valid, then the Peoiple have lost their freedom, and have only those freedoms left which the Government chooses to leave to them.

The legal mechanism is thus: The Legislature creates the law, the Executive puts the law into effect, and enforces the law, the Courts (in the form of the Jury, a randomly selected subset of the People,) determine if the law is valid. In our last hundred years, increasingly the function of the Courts, represented by the Jury, has come to be represented by the Judges, who are, of course, not a random selection of the People, but a selected part of the Government.

Our current Government has gone so far as to say that it will continue to hold (at least some) defendants, even if they are found innocent!

I highly recommend that all people subject to jury duty (adult citizens) read this book. Despite being written well over 100 years ago, it is quite clearly written, and being short and important to your liberty, will pay great dividends for the little time invested in reading. If you read one book this year, let this be the one.

To properly understand the reason for the system of trial by jury one can do no better than to read Spooner's essay. He covers the history of the concept and the proper role of the "judge" and the rights of the jury. The concept of Jury Nullification and the need for it become clear with a reading of his work. One reading of Spooner's essay and you will never view our judicial system in the same light.

Douglass G. Adair (1913-1968) revolutionized the study of American history in the Revolutionary and early national periods -- and yet, except for those who worked with him and learned from his writings, nobody has heard of him. Adair is one of the great tragic figures in the history of American history. He became the editor of the WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY and transformed that musty journal into the leading scholarly journal on American history and culture to 1815. His essays, mostly published there but also in other widely scattered venues, turned the writing of history of the Founding upside down. Not for Adair was stale economic determinism or patriotic hero-worship. Rather, Adair took ideas seriously, and took seriously the idea that human beings shape and are shaped by the ideas that capture their imaginations and move them to action.

Adair took his own life in 1968, after years of struggle with academic culture's emphasis on writing books. His friends and colleagues gathered his best essays and published them in FAME AND THE FOUNDING FATHERS as a memorial to him.

The essays collected in this volume are dazzling explorations in the history of ideas and politics. In the now-classic "The Authorship of the Disputed FEDERALIST PAPERS", Adair not only solved a historical puzzle that had perplexed generations of Americans -- he provided a model of deft historical detective work. Similarly, his two essays on THE FEDERALIST No. 10 -- "The Tenth FEDERALIST Revisited" and "'That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science:' Hume, Madison, and the Tenth FEDERALIST" -- are indispensable to anyone who would understand the FEDERALIST or James Madison. Among the other important essays collected here are Adair's superb brief biography of Madison, his trio of essays exploring knotty puzzles in the life and career of Alexander Hamilton, and his still-controversial essay on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings -- though this last essay has been exploded by the work of Annette Gordon-Reed in her pathbreaking THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS: AN AMERICAN CONTROVERSY (University Press of Virginia, 1997).

In 1974, when this book first appeared, I had just completed my freshman year of college. I read it eagerly, and it opened my eyes to the value of writing about difficult historical issues in an elegant and accessible way. Anyone who is interested in American history between the 1770s and the 1830s must read this fine book. Anyone who cares about writing about history for a wide general audience will find this book to be a treasured model.

I owe Douglass Adair, who died when I was 12, a debt that I can never repay. I hope that others will read this book and contract similar debts.

-- Richard B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School

Douglass G. Adair (1913-1968) revolutionized the study of American history in the Revolutionary and early national periods -- and yet, except for those who worked with him and learned from his writings, nobody has heard of him.

Adair is one of the great tragic figures in the history of American history. He became the editor of the WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY and transformed that musty journal into the leading scholarly journal on American history and culture to 1815. His essays, mostly published there but also in other widely scattered venues, turned the writing of history of the Founding upside down. Not for Adair was stale economic determinism or patriotic hero-worship. Rather, Adair took ideas seriously, and took seriously the idea that human beings shape and are shaped by the ideas that capture their imaginations and move them to action.

Adair took his own life in 1968, after years of struggle with academic culture's emphasis on writing books. His friends and colleagues gathered his best essays and published them in FAME AND THE FOUNDING FATHERS as a memorial to him.

The essays collected in this volume are dazzling explorations in the history of ideas and politics. In the now-classic "The Authorship of the Disputed FEDERALIST PAPERS", Adair not only solved a historical puzzle that had perplexed generations of Americans -- he provided a model of deft historical detective work. Similarly, his two essays on THE FEDERALIST No. 10 -- "The Tenth FEDERALIST Revisited" and "'That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science:' Hume, Madison, and the Tenth FEDERALIST" -- are indispensable to anyone who would understand the FEDERALIST or James Madison. Among the other important essays collected here are Adair's superb brief biography of Madison, his trio of essays exploring knotty puzzles in the life and career of Alexander Hamilton, and his still-controversial essay on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings -- though this last essay has been exploded by the work of Annette Gordon-Reed in her pathbreaking THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS: AN AMERICAN CONTROVERSY (University Press of Virginia, 1997).

In 1974, when this book first appeared, I had just completed my freshman year of college. I read it eagerly, and it opened my eyes to the value of writing about difficult historical issues in an elegant and accessible way. Anyone who is interested in American history between the 1770s and the 1830s must read this fine book. Anyone who cares about writing about history for a wide general audience will find this book to be a treasured model.

I owe Douglass Adair, who died when I was 12, a debt that I can never repay. I hope that others will read this book and contract similar debts.

-- Richard B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School

[N.B.: This review was originally written for the paperback edition of this book and submitted to amazon.com on 12 October 1998. It accompanies the Amazon listing for the paperback edition and should also accompany the simultaneously-published hardcover edition from the same publisher. -- RBB]

I have had this book as part of my library for a number of years and while I have sorted through and disposed of many books due to lack of shelf space, this is one book that will always have a permanent place among favorites. It clearly helped me to understand the need to recognize and find my own identity and to then encourage others in their own process of finding wholeness, learning how to develope healthy and productive relationships in the process. Ken clearly expresses the freedom we can find as we develop a relationship with God through His Spirit as He leads us through our earthly relationships, teaching us what true love really means--freedom to be REAL people. Accepting and encouraging each other through the process of living the life we have, growing and maturing and becoming more genuine in the process.

Ken Schmidt is a marriage and family counselor in Ventura, California who has written an inspired book about where we fit into the scheme of things. Instead of blaming our parents or blaming society or blaming some other person or factor in our lives, Ken enables the reader to see that God can bring us into a right relationship with the people in our lives as well as Himself if we see Him and ourselves as He designed those relationships to be. I have purchased copies for troubled friends and was hoping to buy another copy from Amazon. I definately recommend it.

After reading this book I have to say that all college students, especially those at public schools, must read this book. I am not sure what the rate is at other schools, but here at the University of Minnesota each student was charged $275 a semester in student fees this year, and the vast majority of them don't know that. This book will teach you the history of student fees, along with the way a fees system has to be set up according to the relevant court cases.

I have to agree with the guy who reviewed this book before me on most of his points, except that this book should also be read by liberals, because you are also missing out when you are forced to pay money to get only half of a market place of ideas.

As an experienced campus fees warrior, I'm here to tell you that you're behind the times. There are so few people up on the modern student services fees process that public universities have been able to manipulate the system to their own agendas. But if you are at a public university, and you are interested in learning how the fees money that is taken from you is allocated, then you need this book.

If you think what you need to do is focus on eliminating fees, you're wrong, and this book will tell you why. If you think that your fees process at your university is fair, you're wrong, and this book will tell you why. If you're a conservative activist on campus and think you and your cause shouldn't get involved in fees, you're wrong, and this book will tell you why.

Included in this book is a step by step process that will tell you the history of student services fees, how they moved on from legitimate student services to an intensely liberal institution. How court cases over the last 20 years have ended the present hope of many conservatives to end mandatory fees systems, court cases that are included in the book. A guide to legal terms, and a suggestion on where to go from today's system to a fair system that includes all viewpoints. If you want to stop being out of the loop, stop being behind the times, if you are lost and confused, you need this book. It's a clear and concise manual for students.

Get active, get smart, get this book

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, also known as "The Captain", was an extremely charismatic man that lived in Rumania in the early part of the 1900's. The book is the tale of his life and his movement's struggle against forces both foreign and Rumanian. They named their movement "the Legion of the Archangel Michael", thereby showing already their mysticist leanings.

The book is very well written, and in "right-wing" radical circles, it is one of the best liked tales in our European library of spiritual "right-wing" activism. I found the book to be very inspiring, and many a time if things are tough, I just think back at the inhuman atrocities committed against Codreanu and his allies, and it gives me new strength. The tale is nicely built up, so that you really feel involved in their heroic struggle, from the meagre beginnings to the very tragic end. I have friends that have been brought to tears from reading this book.

Highly recommended!

(I read a different edition)

_For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard_, first published in 1936 and republished here by Liberty Bell Publications, by the Leader of the Romanian Iron Guard Corneliu Zelea Codreanu is a fascinating and heroic account of one man's struggle for Romania against forces of oppression written to be read by his Legionaries. Corneliu Z. Codreanu (1899 - 1938) known as "The Captain" was a Romanian far right ultra-nationalist who opposed the forces of Communism. He formed and led a movement of Legionaries known as the Iron Guard or The Legion of Michael the Archangel. This legion was embued with a mystical fascination and immersed in the traditions of Romanian Orthodoxy and operated out of cells known as "nests". This book tells the story of Codreanu's struggle for Romania against alien forces and his creation of the Legion in an effort to restore Romania. Further, this book has served as a source of inspiration for many on the far right.

The book begins with a Foreword by Dr. Dimitrie Gazdaru, a Romanian professor, that speaks to the struggles of Codreanu against the Satanic menace of the Communists and maintains that Codreanu represents an important pedagogue for the eras between the two world wars. Codreanu writes that this book contains the story of his youth from the ages of 19 to 34 detailing his struggles and hardships. The book begins with a declaration to the Legionaries, offering them hope in their struggles. Following this, the first section of the book is entitled "Stepping Into Life" and details the early years of Codreanu and his movement. Codreanu begins with a congregation in the Dobrina Forest in 1919. Codreanu next details his years at the university of Iasi and his struggles with the Communists. Codreanu mentions such individuals as Constantin Pancu, the importance of the tricolor flag, and the Creed of National-Christian Socialism. Codreanu explains his struggles against the Jewish dominated press and the relationship between his organization and the university. The second section of this book is entitled "The Student Movement". Here, Codreanu explains the events of December 10, 1922 and the "numerus causus". The third section of this book is entitled "The Jewish Problem". Codreanu argues that the number of Jews pose a threat to the Romanian nation and details various attempts by the Legionaries to overcome struggles against the Jewish press and the Communists. The fourth section of this book is entitled "A Year of Great Trials". Here, Codreanu discusses the events of 1924, the Christian cultural home, work camps, his continuing struggles, his bethrothal, and his trial. The fifth section of this book is entitled "June 1925 - June 1926". This section discusses such things as Codreanu's wedding, the resumption of his work, his time spent in France and his relationships with the French peasants and their religion, his university work in France, and his experience at Bucharest where the League of Christian National Defense was broken in two. The sixth section of this book is entitled "The Legion of Michael the Archangel". Here, Codreanu discusses how the Legion obtained its name and its opposition to materialism. Codreanu details the conflict between matter and spirit, details the Legion's program and maintains the need for faith in God. Further, Codreanu explains the stages of the Legion's development and the importance of the "Pamantul Stramosesc" or "the Ancestral Land" for all Romania. Codreanu continues to detail his struggles throughout 1928 and 1929. The seventh section of this book is entitled "Toward the Popular Masses". This section details the events of 1929 and discusses Codreanu's decision to appeal to the masses. This further discusses various events that led to the dissolution of the Legion of Michael the Archangel and the Iron Guard, the arrest warrant, and the trial which follows. Further, there is discussion of the role of the legion in the first election. Codreanu also explains the symbol (which also appears on the front cover of this book) of the iron grid which represents the Iron Guard. The eighth section of this book is entitled "Democracy Against the Nation". Codreanu makes some observations about his role in parliament and the nature of democracy, detailing a plan for severely punishing traitors and those who have stolen from the public funds. Codreanu makes several remarks about the nature of democracy, nation, and heredity, and then comments on the monarchy. Codreanu next discusses such things as the Battle of Tutova, the second dissolution of the Guard, and various further details about the elections and the state of the legionary organization as of 1932-1933. The ninth section of this book is entitled "The Offensive of Calumnies". Here, Codreanu describes some of the brutal offenses committed against the legionaries. Codreanu discusses various rumors circulation in the press that the Iron Guard was in the service of foreign powers including the Germans, the Italians, the Hungarians, and ironically even the Jews. Codreanu also discusses various smears made against the Iron Guard accusing them of printing counterfeit money and in that way being guilty of the crime of stealing from the public funds. Such smears were commonplace in the press of various rival parties at the time. In particular, the Iron Guard was smeared as an "anarchic and terroristic movement". Codreanu discusses the relationship between his Legionaries and some of the other parties including the National-Peasant Party, the National-Liberal Party, the Georgists, the Lupists, the Cuzists, and the Vlad Tepes League. In particular, the National-Peasant Party and the Liberal Party disseminated rumors that the Guard had been involved in counterfeiting schemes. Codreanu also discusses the "death team", the feelings of the members of the Legion to go forward through death. Following this, Codreanu discusses events as they took place at Teius and the building of the dam at Visani in which the Legionaries were brutally crushed by gendarme companies sent by orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Codreanu then explains how the Liberal Party assumed responsibility for exterminating the Iron Guard. Codreanu ends with a call to his comrades to continue the struggle through pain and sacrifice. The book ends with an "Epilogue" which gives an account by the gendarme Sarbu of the murder of Codreanu in 1938 after a clash with King Carol.

This book remains a fascinating account of one man's struggle to preserve his national heritage from the onslaughts of Communists and invaders. As such, it is an important historical document which details a troubled time in Romania's history between the two world wars. It is recommended to those who are interested in this figure and has been taken up by certain members of the far right as a detailed account of the struggle.

This is a Great book with alot of deep insight to freedom from addiction also to freedom in life.

I am free from addiction! This book explains in great detail how the POWER alluded to in the 12 steps ONLY comes from Jesus , and once you accept His most graceful redemption, there is NO need to call yourself addicted anymore! Please get out of the SIN (sitting in negativity) and rejoice in His holy name. I've studied and read, '2 Tracks One Goal', Dick B 'Akron Genesis of AA'., 'The Good Book and the Big Book'.... NO other book spells out how to get free FROM addiction! Not information ABOUT addiction, not a man-made 'design' for living, not a program to modify behavior... a TRANSLATION into a new being. (II Cor 5:17) and (1 Sam 10:6). This masterpiece shows all Bible references to the "program"... whence the essence. If you are serious about recovery, this is the best book (besides the Word of God) I've read! Thank you authors for your obedience to His Word. My fellow recoveries.... I pray you will pick this up and open your heart to God's Words. I understand why they now have a workbook based upon this book! It is a lifelong mission to fully apply the precepts explained in this book into one's life. Hallelujah! Praise and Glory to God!

Over the last thirty years freedom in the US has come to mean individualist action in the market place with government, beyond providing minimum security, being seen only as capable of restricting freedom, certainly not able to enhance freedom. While admitting that there has always been that strain of thinking in America, the author makes the case that it is a view that is contrary to what the Founding Fathers thought and what transpired over the first 75 years of the twentieth century.

A central view of the Founding Fathers was that to fully participate in political affairs, citizens must be free and independent. That is they must have access to sufficient property to sustain themselves and their families and not be subject to the dictates and whims of others. That Lockean ideal was at least theoretically achievable at the time, because most people were small farmers and the US had vast stores of land. Such free and equal citizens were part of the republican ideal of fully participating virtuous citizens.

Freedom, for the author, goes well beyond the absence of capricious state authority. Freedom is synonymous with empowerment. A genuinely free man must have access to sufficient economic resources to lead at least a basic and respected life that permits time for self-improvement and social involvement. Furthermore, in a government of the people, a free man must be able to equally participate in the political process and not be trumped by the privileges of wealth.

It is contended that free-market freedom gains legitimacy because "equal opportunity" exists for all. But it is clear that the privately run US economy falls short by at least 20 percent of sufficient good employment opportunities. Those impacted include both the unemployed and the much larger number of those earning too little to lead basic and decent lives. The author emphasizes "adequate" opportunity over "equal" opportunity.

What has happened is that formerly good jobs have become inadequate jobs. Over the last thirty years there has been a massive redistribution of income to the upper level of earners. Median wages over the period have been flat, while average wages have climbed, even though productivity has increased by nearly 50 percent over the same time. The minimum wage stands at one-half of where it should be to sustain a minimally decent life. American families in this economic environment are surviving by greatly increasing their hours worked and assuming large debt.

Genuine freedom for the author is a moral and social issue. Freedom is not about the lone wolf operating freely on his piece of property. The author suggests that we as a society are obligated to create the conditions and ensure basic outcomes that will allow all citizens to participate equally in social and political affairs. The solution is not to emphasize charity or "compassion" as so many advocate. Charity is an uneven, ad hoc process that is dependent on the personal inclinations of the giver - there is no real obligation. It is through the political process that we as a nation make decisions that affect us all, including decisions about basic economic security.

It seems rather odd that for a nation that touts its freedoms, that freedom has taken on such a minimalist meaning. Of course, this is due to the rise in the immense power of corporations in the economy and their ability to control the media (corporations also) and the political process. They absolutely do not want the government to intervene in their affairs, even though they do have immense social impacts. However, they do not eschew government largesse, including all manner of tax breaks. Ignoring the deleterious consequences of paying full-time workers only one-half of what is necessary for a minimally decent living, they claim the working of neutral market forces. Actually, it is a maldistribution of power. It is an absence of power by workers at the workplace and in the political process.

The author wants the notion of freedom that predominated at the time of the founding and followed in first 75 years of the twentieth century to be reclaimed. The farming society of the colonial period is long gone, but the need for genuine freedom is not. One would have to feel that the founders would have adapted to industrial, market society in ways that would have preserved genuine freedom, including a larger role for government. The author points out that forming the US state was in fact an increase in government over the former confederation. They were wise and practical men, but they are also gone. What is most definitely missing from the author's work, is any sense of how freedom will be reclaimed in the current environment. Corporate and market values seem to be so ascendant as to drive out other conceptions of life, including schemes that would try to modify corporate behavior to restore economic, and thereby social and political, freedom to all citizens. The funding of politicians and the running for elective office by the rich are evocative of the era of the robber barons of the nineteenth century. Reclaiming freedom may well be wishful thinking; we may be at a point of no return.

The author has done a great job of elucidating how the past 30 years of Republican conservative political dominance has hurt the average worker and working family. The book brings to light the great degree to which average Americans have been backing the politics that has been stabbing them in the back. Robbed of economic freedom and prosperity, deprived of personal freedoms, without decent healthcare, lacking in educational opportunity, and confronted by a deteriorating environment, the American people nonetheless have come to the false view that Conservatives are the protectors of liberty and Liberals have nothing to offer them. Schwarz shows how Republican policies have given the benefits of worker productivity to the very few and the very rich, while the worker just keeps working harder and getting farther behind.

"Freedom Reclaimed," once it is understood and appreciated for its message and its implications, could serve as a rallying point for a political resurgence to take back America from the stranglehold of selfishness and lack of vision that characterizes its current "leadership." If average workers only knew how much better off they were under the Democrats in the 1960s and could be again, they would throw out the GOP in a heartbeat.

If I were charged to compile a list of ten books that every American would be required to read, I believe this short little 27 page booklet would be on that list. FREEDOM THROUGH MILITARY VICTORY by R.B. Thieme, teaches what the Word of God has to say about the military and war, and believe me, we've gone about it all wrong for the last 60-plus years.

Added to the extraordinary text here are the Doctrine of Human Freedom and the Doctrine of Conspiracy. There are also countless hours of audio study available on the subject through R.B. Thieme Ministries, but this exceptional booklet will get you started. Best of all, as the previous review stated, these publications are available free of charge.

There is no charge for any material from R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries. Anyone who desires Bible teaching can receive our books and tapes without obligation. God provides Bible doctrine. We wish to reflect His grace.
R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries is a grace ministry and operates entirely on voluntary contributions. There is no price list for books or tapes. No money is requested. When gratitude for the Word of God motivates a believer to give, he has the privilege of contributing to the dissemination of Bible doctrine.

Publications are available from:

R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries
Post Office Box 460829
Houston, Texas 77056-8829
(713) 621-3740

Forget those boring civics classes, forget those classes where American history's most important events were relegated to footnotes skipped over by the teacher. If Howard Zinn had not written "A People's History of the United States" Michael Linfield has written it for him.

Linfield's compelling revealations of the US government's record of civil liberties violations throughout our relatively short, bloody, aggressive and imperialistic history documents how every real and contrived wartime scenario has been used by the rulers to eliminate civil liberties and impose a true Pax Americana domestically.

Beginning with the American "Revolution" which appears to me to be less and less like a revolution and more and more like a contrived power and land grab by the greedy, not the needy. I believe that one could make a case for the fact that after their ascension to power, that American "revolutionaries" were as reactionary and oppressive as the power from whoom they had wrested control.

Each wartime scenario shattters any illusion of goodness or democracy with one holds certain rulers. As Jim Morrison wrote, "No One Here gets Out Alive." So, too, with the author. One comes swiftly to the conclusion that not one U.S. leader, either in declared wartime or between conflicts has really done anything to insure the civil liberties for which Americans fought and died on a myriad of foreign battlefields.

Linfield has written American history as it is, not as, Rush Limbaugh might ask, "The Way Things Ought to Be." This is indeed Mr. Wells' history, Howard Zin''s history, but not 10th grade American high schol history.

I highly recommend reading Linfield's book, checking out the footnotes and the primary source documents. Keep the book handy next time some...patriot resembling a beached whale drenches those around him with his version of American history. Linfield's book will rock their world.

Linfield's work provides a handy overview of extent to which Constitutional safeguards have been compromised over the years, particularly during wartime. Beginning with the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts of the Revolutionary war period, through the Civil War, W.W.I, and Vietnam eras, the author compiles a steady pattern of government assault on Constitutional restrictions whenever those restrictions become politically or militarily inconvenient. Of particular note in this regard, are the McCarran - Walter Act of the cold war era, aimed at resricting free flow of information and travel, and the notorious Palmer raids following W.W.I, aimed at curbing the rise of a socialist movement. Whether your politics are left, right or center, this historical record should be of interest. It shows pretty clearly how slender are these parchment-bound safeguards whenever established wealth and power feels threatened.

This book is a wonderful addition for the amateur genealogist of Connecticut families. Many things are explained here that flesh out the "facts" gleaned from documents about various family members. I particularly found helpful the discussion on property and town formations.

In England, the Puritans defied church and state. In America, ironically, the Puritans established colonies which came to emphasize deference to authority. In colonial New England, a rough equality in condition eased most tensions of hierarchy in status. By the eve of the Revolution, however, several factors--religious, political, economic and demographic--worked to rekindle the Puritan tradition of agitation and radicalism. The Protestant emphasis on the authority of individual conscience was revived. Richard L. Bushman explores these developments in Connecticut, providing a colorful social portrait. He brings to life arguments and controversies, illuminating the convictions and feelings of each side. Bushman's work proves very informative and quite readable.