Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664-1730

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Portrait of Colonial Ethnicity
Review: The title is a clever pun on the Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan work, Beyond the Melting Pot, which is a history of ethnic groups in modern New York. Joyce D. Goodfriend offers an excellent discussion of ethnicity in colonial New York. She examines patterns of officeholding, occupation, intermarriage and church attendance among various ethnic groups over several generations. While Goodfriend discusses the English, her work is stronger in considering the French Huguenots, and strongest in examining the Dutch. Her thoroughness is illuminating and her style entertaining.

This book, however, does not encompass every ethnic group in colonial New York. For instance, the German and the African presence in the city does not receive the same scrutiny as the French and the Dutch. Goodfriend does offer a portrait of ethnic interaction. Her work, however, is primarily a consideration of Dutch (and French) adjustment to English colonial policy.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Portrait of Colonial Ethnicity
Review: The title is a clever pun on the Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan work, Beyond the Melting Pot, which is a history of ethnic groups in modern New York. Joyce D. Goodfriend offers an excellent discussion of ethnicity in colonial New York. She examines patterns of officeholding, occupation, intermarriage and church attendance among various ethnic groups over several generations. While Goodfriend discusses the English, her work is stronger in considering the French Huguenots, and strongest in examining the Dutch. Her thoroughness is illuminating and her style entertaining.

This book, however, does not encompass every ethnic group in colonial New York. For instance, the German and the African presence in the city does not receive the same scrutiny as the French and the Dutch. Goodfriend does offer a portrait of ethnic interaction. Her work, however, is primarily a consideration of Dutch (and French) adjustment to English colonial policy.