Bruce C. Daniels. Dissent and Conformity on Narragansett Bay: The Colonial Rhode Island Town. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1983. Jessica Kross. The Evolution of an American Town: Newton, New York, 1642-1775. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983. Lynne Withey. Urban Growth in Colonial Rhode Island: Newport and Providence in the Eighteenth Century. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984. In a sharp comment on the parochial view which had long prevailed in writings on early American history, W.T. Root, in reviewing the second volume of Charles McLean Andrews' Guide to Materials for American History, to 1783 in the Public Record Office, observed in 1915 that the work of Andrews and others in foreign archives was a "sure sign that we are coming to a study of the past with a new vision."1 Too frequently American historians had been studying their country as if it were somehow unaffected by and unconnected to the main currents of world history. Undoubtedly a reaction had set in, and Root predicted that the work of Andrews would weaken the old isolation. Indeed, the imperial historians did go on to break down the parochial view of early America and to portray its institutions and development as part of a larger British community.