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The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of the Provincial Dilemma
Author(s) -
Griffin Patrick
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00753.x
Subject(s) - dilemma , subject (documents) , history , protestantism , genealogy , sociology , psychoanalysis , psychology , political science , law , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , library science
This essay explores the utility of the ‘provincial dilemma’ for organizing Atlantic history. It does so by examining a 1954 article on the subject by Bernard Bailyn and John Clive. Colonists in America and the Caribbean, Protestant settlers in Ireland, and lowlanders in Scotland struggled with amphibious status. Their desire to be accepted as equals by metropolitans and, at the same time, carve out a niche as members of distinctive societies animated the 18th‐century Atlantic. But we still have to integrate new actors into this story. This essay, then, charts the possibilities and limits not only of the provincial approach but also of Atlantic history.