The City-State of Boston

A groundbreaking history of early America that shows how Boston built and sustained an independent city-state in New England before being folded into the United States In the vaunted annals of Americas founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary city upon a hill and the cradle of liberty for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired clichs, The City-State of Boston highlights Bostons overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a pathbreaking and brilliant new history of early America. Following Bostons development over three centuries, Mark Peterson discusses how this self-governing Atlantic trading center began as a refuge from Britains Stuart monarchs and howthrough its bargain with the slave trade and ratification of the Constitutionit would tragically lose integrity and autonomy as it became incorporated into the greater United States. Drawing from vast archives, and featuring unfamiliar figures alongside well-known ones, such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and John Adams, Peterson explores Bostons origins in sixteenth-century utopian ideals, its founding and expansion into the hinterland of New England, and the growth of its distinctive political economy, with ties to the West Indies and southern Europe. By the 1700s, Boston was at full strength, with wide Atlantic trading circuits and cultural ties, both within and beyond Britains empire. After the cataclysmic Revolutionary War, Bostoners aimed to negotiate a relationship with the American confederation, but through the next century, the new United States unraveled Bostons regional reign. The fateful decision to ratify the Constitution undercut its power, as Southern planters and slave owners dominated national politics and corroded the city-states vision of a common good for all. Peeling away the layers of myth surrounding a revered city, The City-State of Boston offers a startlingly fresh understanding of Americas history.