Rip Van Winkle's Neighbors

The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley, 1720-1850

• Author(s): Thomas S. Wermuth,
• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Pages: 186
• ISBN_10: 079145083X
  ISBN_13: 9780791450833
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) , History / United States / State & Local / General , History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775) , History / Social History ,

Description:... Although Rip Van Winkle was a fictional character, his community in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York State was very real. Thomas S. Wermuth’s book shows that the popular view of Hudson Valley farmers as self-sufficient, independent, and free of governmental authority is as fictional as the character of Rip Van Winkle himself. In fact these mid-Hudson farmers lived in villages where economic practices and behavior were regulated by civil authorities as well as neighborhood concerns, and where acquisitive practices that were believed to endanger the public good were forbidden.