Border Life

“Border Life deserves a wide readership. By exposing and analyzing the world of common settlers in the backcountry South, Perkins had given us a wonderful tool through which to teach the social history of the Revolutionary period.” — Journal of Southern History

“Marks the emergence of a new generation of frontier studies. . . . A superb study.” — Ohio History

“A study of ambiguity that utilizes the voices of ordinary people to understand how they coped with frontier life.” — Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

“An important book, felicitous in its prose, lucid in its analysis, and wide-ranging in its observations. An extended meditation on the texture and meaning of western settlement in the Revolutionary generation, it is required reading for anyone interested in the origins of American 'border life'.” — William and Mary Quarterly

“A rich and thought-provoking exploration of important source material from a new perspective.” — AB Bookman’s Weekly

“This is one of the only works I know that seriously reconstructs the 'collective memory' of American pioneers. Traditional frontier history told a story of progress. But Perkins provides striking evidence that the settlers knew too much to be seduced by triumphalist tales. She reveals their ambiguous feelings about their life work.” — John Mack Faragher, Yale University