A fascinating foray into the private and communal lives of colonial Americans...The power of Fierce Communion...does not lie in its explication of the decline of early American communal life, but in the portrayal of its interrelated components.
   --History

In this short and engagingly written book, Helena Wall draws on an impressive range of primary and secondary sources to illustrate 'the primacy of community' in the North American colonies before 1750.
   --New England Quarterly

This lively book gives us a fresh and challenging view of some seemingly well-worn historical territory. Indeed, it provides an important corrective to much of our previous thinking. Its numerous ‘cases’ from the period five it a decidedly human touch. This is one book, that will, among other things, be fun to read.
   --John Demos

Helena M. Wall is Associate Professor of History, Pomona College.