"Recounting the customs and styles of life of ordinary people during a period of rapid and unsettling social and economic change, Jack Larkin, the chief historian at Old Sturbridge Village....illuminates an astonishing range of activities." -- New York Times Book Review

The American Revolution is finally over, and Sophie Menzies is starved for good news. When her nearest neighbor, General Seamus Ogilvy, finally comes home to Tall Acre, she hopes it is a sign of better days to come. But the general is now a widower with a small daughter in desperate need of a mother. Nearly destitute, Sophie agrees to marry Seamus and become the mistress of Tall Acre in what seems a safe, sensible arrangement. But when a woman from...

This new look at Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton goes beyond their common depictions as American saints to expose the sometimes selfish motives behind their actions.

Surveys the history of husking bees, barn raisings, soap boilings, and other American work-play parties, in which people in colonial and pioneer days came together to help one another while having fun.