"For almost fifty years, J. R. Pole has been the central contributor in the United Kingdom to the revival of scholarly interest in colonial British America, showing a particular concern to spell out the British roots of American ideas and institutions and the American variations in those inherited ideas and institutions. Contract and Consent illustrates the ways that legal culture ... Read moredeeply informs all aspects of history and takes the history of law out of the technical hands of the modern legal establishment and brings it into the mainstream of Anglo-American historical studies. Contract and Consent is a superb piece of historical analysis and represents a fitting culmination of Pole's distinguished scholarly career." - Jack P. Greene, author of Interpreting Early America: Historiographical Essays (Virginia) "Contract and Consent will delight scholars in both American and legal history, as well as political theory. Its readers will be in the hands of a very erudite scholar who has had a long time to reflect on the many nuances in the law and its application. The historical detail and astute exploration of the social and political impact of law add a great deal to the whole effect." - Joyce Appleby, author of Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans" Show Less