Enemies to Their Country
Book • 2025
Nicholas W. Gentile's Enemies to Their Country reconstructs the year after Marblehead's 1774 Address to Governor Thomas Hutchinson, tracing how the town's patriot majority pressured signers, forced public recantations, and exiled some residents.
Drawing on town meeting minutes, diaries, newspapers, and other local records, Gentile situates Marblehead's conflict within broader religious, social, and political shifts—especially the First Great Awakening and contested notions of unanimity.
The book foregrounds the lived experiences of a range of townspeople, including loyalists, patriots, neutrals, and enslaved individuals, to complicate simplistic narratives of the Revolution.
By treating consensus-seeking, social pressure, and religious rhetoric as central forces, Gentile shows how local dynamics shaped revolutionary choice and community rupture.
Drawing on town meeting minutes, diaries, newspapers, and other local records, Gentile situates Marblehead's conflict within broader religious, social, and political shifts—especially the First Great Awakening and contested notions of unanimity.
The book foregrounds the lived experiences of a range of townspeople, including loyalists, patriots, neutrals, and enslaved individuals, to complicate simplistic narratives of the Revolution.
By treating consensus-seeking, social pressure, and religious rhetoric as central forces, Gentile shows how local dynamics shaped revolutionary choice and community rupture.
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Nicholas W. Gentile
Nicholas W. Gentile, "Enemies to Their Country: The Marblehead Addressers and Consensus in the American Revolution" (U Mass Press, 2025)
