ABSTRACT
A review of some recent literature from the perspective of the English Atlantic empire draws attention to several themes, and concentration upon the lifetime 1675 to 1740 brings ‘provincial’ themes into sharpest focus. Most Englishmen lived in London’s provinces, whether in rural England, provincial towns, or transatlantic colonies. Although the economic history of the English Atlantic has not been subjected to recent synthesis, the field has been ably surveyed in the broader comparative studies by Ralph Davis and K. G. Davies. In ways that are associated with the ideas of Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan, the English Atlantic was a paper empire. Provincial newspapers first emerged in the 1690s, bringing local interpretations of events and cosmopolitan intrusions upon local life. Education transmits and preserves more than it innovates, and recent work on American provincial education has re-emphasised the continuities between England and America.
