A three-volume set that discusses various aspects of the European colonies in North America including labor systems, technology, religion, and racial interaction.

Vol. 1. pt. 1 : The American context ; The natural environment ; The first Americans -- pt. 2 : Old world expansion. The age of reconnaissance ; Emergence of empires : Spain, France, Britain, The Netherlands -- pt. 3 : Colonial settings. Norse settlements ; Settlements in the Spanish borderlands : Southwest, Southeast ; French settlements ; Dutch and Swedish settlements ; British settlements ; The West Indies and North America ; The Russian settlements -- pt. 4 : Government and law. Colonial political thought ; Colonial political culture ; The framework of government ; Relations with the parent country ; Local government ; The suffrage ; Taxation ; Crime and law enforcement ; The legal profession ; Civil law -- pt. 5 : Economic life. Mercantilism ; Growth and welfare ; Poverty ; Transportation and communication ; Trade and commerce ; Currency and finance ; The colonial merchant ; Artisans ; Manufacturing and extractive industries ; Maritime enterprises ; The fur trade ; Landholding ; Farming, planting, and ranching ; Native American economies ; Ecological consequences of economic development. Vol. 2. pt. 6 : Labor Systems. Hired labor ; Bound labor ; The slave trade ; Slavery -- pt. 7 : Racial integration. Indian-colonist contact ; Mission communities ; Detribalized and manumitted Indians ; Interracial societies ; Free blacks ; African-American culture ; Slave resistance -- pt. 8 : War and diplomacy. Indian-colonist conflicts and alliances ; The European contest for North America ; The conquest of Acadia -- pt. 9 : The social fabric. Repeopling the land ; Internal migration ; The structure of society ; Gender relations ; Patterns of community ; Rural life ; Urban life ; Men in arms ; Social tensions -- pt. 10 : Folkways. Recreations ; Home and hearth ; Festival traditions ; Dress ; Manners -- pt. 11 : Families and the life course. Family structures ; Sexual mores and behavior ; Marriage ; Childhood and adolescence ; Old age and death ; Native American families and life cycles. Vol. 3. pt. 12 : The life of the mind. Literacy ; Indian languages ; Literature ; The colonial press ; Libraries and learned societies ; Philosophy ; The Enlightenment -- pt. 13 : Science and technology. Scientific inquiry ; Medical practice ; Technology -- pt. 14 : The arts. Architecture ; Painting and sculpture ; Crafts ; Music and dance ; Drama ; Native American aesthetics -- pt. 15 : Education. Theories of education ; Patterns of socialization ; Schools and schooling ; Higher education -- pt. 16 : Religion. Church and state -- Roman Catholicism ; Anglicanism ; Puritanism ; Quakerism ; Dutch and French Calvinism ; Protestant pluralism ; Judaism ; Native American religions ; Magic and witchcraft ; Revivalism and the Great Awakening -- pt. 17. Toward independence. The reorganization of empires ; Crises of empire ; Ideologies of revolution ; Independence : the British colonies ; the Spanish Colonies ; The Canadian perspective.