Knollenberg, Bernhard

This book covers the period from the earliest white settlement on the Upper Whitewater to the coming of the railroads in 1853, when larger-scale manufacturing began in the region. The author writes in the Preface that, “probably no other spot in Indiana has a fuller record of its pioneer years than the Upper Whitewater Valley. A large proportion of the early settlers were Quakers; and the Friends, having eschewed the sword, were zealous wielders of the pen. I have told my story as far as possible in the pioneers’ own words. ”

"In his two volumes on the Revolution, Knollenberg provides a basic narrative of events, with extensive citations to the sources and a thorough discussion of the historiography. He concentrates on the political and constitutional clash between Parliament and the colonies that led to the Revolution. Social, economic, and intellectual history enter the story where needed, but Knollenberg was essentially a political historian. Although steeped in the sources and scrupulous about the facts, he wrote whig history. His sympathies lay with the Americans. He believed that the British ministries were responsible for the crumbling of the empire and that the Americans represented the cause of liberty."--BOOK JACKET.

Scholarly analysis of the preliminaries to our Revolution.