The colonial metamorphoses in Rhode Island

the long version

"Colonial historian Sydney V. James describes how Rhode Island's founders created, and then rationalized, the institutions that shaped their lives at both the local and provincial levels. He follows the uneven path taken as they developed town and colony governments, churches and private corporations, and courts and land companies that eventually gave a semblance of form and order to a fractious society. The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island brings to light new ways of looking at an often neglected period stretching from the founding to the revolutionary era."--BOOK JACKET.