Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire

Shedding new light on British expansion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this collection of essays examines how the first British Empire was received and shaped by its subject peoples in Scotland, Ireland, North America, and the Caribbean.

An introduction surveys British imperial historiography and provides a context for the volume as a whole. The essays focus on specific ethnic groups — Native Americans, African-Americans, Scotch-Irish, and Dutch and Germans — and their relation...