Maryland, A Middle Temperament: 1634-1980 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) [Paperback]

Robert J. Brugger (Author)

Book Description

Series: Maryland Paperback Bookshelf | Publication Date: August 28, 1996

Maryland: A Middle Temperament explores the ironies, contradictions, and compromises that give "America's oldest border state" its special character. Extensively illustrated and accompanied by bibliography, maps, charts, and tables, Robert Brugger's vivid account of the state's political, economic, social, and cultural heritage—from the outfitting of Cecil Calvert's expedition to the opening of Baltimore's Harborplace—is rich in the issues and personalities that make up Maryland's story and explain its "middle temperament."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A history of the third original colony with 350 years of tobacco culture, slavery, industrial revolution, civil war, and civil rights is a daunting task met by Brugger in his highly readable standard history of the state. Brugger not only covers the pageant of centuries but also finds a themeone of moderation and balance in a not-quite Southern but not-quite Northern realm where both cool heads and Union occupation prevented secession. Writing over the last three years, Brugger recognizes the findings of younger historians who have wrung fresh insights about colonial living from statistics and archaeology. He is not reticent about long-denied civil rights, old political machines, and fairly recent corruption. John W. McCrain, Baltimore Cty. Landmarks Preservation Commission, Towson, Md.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

[An] altogether exemplary history.. In following the middle course, Maryland has chosen the American way; this, it seems to me, is the deepest and most important truth in Robert J. Brugger's thoroughly admirable book.

(Jonathan Yardley Washington Post Book World )

The most comprehensive and readable history of the Free State ever published. It's absolutely the only account I've ever seen that makes almost all our state history seem important or entertaining or both. It will doubtless be used for generations as the most reliable reference work on its subject.

(John Goodspeed Evening Sun )

It is comprehensive in scope yet concise in treatment, scholarly in content yet engaging in prose, cautious in judgement yet adventurous in interpretation. Maryland's historical record has been both controversial and proud; now, in Brugger's volume, its people have a history of that experience of which they can, without controversy, be very proud.

(Maryland Historical Magazine )

This is the best single-volume history of Maryland in print.

(Maryland Historian )

This is wonderful stuff, a whole new way of writing local history.. Here at last is a bridge between the old antiquarian history and the most modern scholarship in a way that is fresh, attractive, and a contribution to understanding.

(George H. Callcott, author of Maryland and America, 1940 to 1980 )

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (August 28, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801854652
• ISBN-13: 978-0801854651
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Maryland : A Middle Temperament, 1634-1980, October 3, 2000

By 

"dokkenrocks" (Salisbury, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maryland, A Middle Temperament: 1634-1980 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) (Paperback)

This is a great survey book for anyone interested in learning about Maryland's history. It touches on all the major themes in the great state's history and how they related to the national landscape.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Single Volume Maryland History out there, March 30, 2006

By 

Nicholas Fry (Monrovia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maryland, A Middle Temperament: 1634-1980 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) (Paperback)

Granted the book stops at the dawn of the internet and biotech age and housing boom that has transformed MD's economic and social fabric, it is still the best single volume history of the state availible. Brugger carefully examines the main themes of Maryland's history and ties them all together with the state's penchant for tolerance and moderation. An excellent book for reference or research on the Old Line State/Free State.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive!, December 19, 2010

By 

Michael J. Cashen (Glen Burnie, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Maryland, A Middle Temperament: 1634-1980 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) (Paperback)

I have one minor complaint with the book, which I'm halfway through, but this history's so thorough for a 3 1/2 century treatise that I still have to give it five stars! As I slowly make my way through this large page/small print, thick history, I'm seeing the names of people and places that are now on Maryland's, streets, islands, and buildings, etc. and am learning who they were: Paca, Chase, Carroll, Joppa, Tilghman, Hammond, etc.

This is not a rah-rah book: it objectively points out the strong and weak points of Maryland as it developed. And the relationships between the other colonies/states are NOT ignored. For the first time in my life, I truly understand why the populations of Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, etc. were so ripe for revolution in the 1770's and how the loyalist and revolutionary tendencies evolved.

My only complaint is that it often deviates -within a chapter- a little too much (half a century) from chronological order. Sometimes such jumping back and forth may be necessary because a section may describe tobacco markets, convict imports, etc. over a period of time, but when going on to the next topic the author sometimes forgets to mention when it occurred so you're not sure if it's still in the last time mentioned or much earlier or later.

Still, that's a minor problem in a great work. If you read this work you'll know more than 99% of Marylanders about Maryland and not only know about important events, but you'll get a feeling for the cultural development of the state.