In Between Two Worlds, Malcolm Gaskill—a historian well known for his work on early modern English crime and witchcraft—demonstrates how, throughout the course of the seventeenth century, English subjects in the New World came to identify themselves as Americans rather than as English subjects abroad. Gaskill demonstrates that unique American identities did not emerge from an early and conscious desire to realize conditions materially different from those in England. Rather, this slow “cultural alteration” was a “gradual and nuanced” (xi) process that emerged in a unique frontier environment that made change inevitable and the retention of Englishness impossible. By the 1690s, the old English colonists “became less like siblings and compatriots, and more like cousins and ancestors” (xi), and most American-born English subjects had never been to England, with the result that their knowledge of English culture had faded and a new creolized American identity and culture had emerged in its place. This highly effective challenge to the older and recently strained idea of American exceptionalism makes this book particularly valuable for American, British, and imperial historians.

Gaskill has organized the twenty chapters of his large book into three chronological sections designed to show how different generations of English subjects living in America perceived themselves in relation to England and Englishness. In the first generation (“Planters, 1607–1640”), colonists thought of themselves as “English” and the Indians as “Americans.” They strove to bring Englishness into their homes, dress, law, and culture. However, events such as the Virginia Massacre and the Pequot War, the dissolution of the Virginia Company, and the crown's concerns about the religious and political outlook of Massachusetts Bay resulted in the beginnings of crown intervention, which caused the colonists to become increasingly resentful of interference from distant officials who did not really understand frontier circumstances. By 1640, “the experience of living in America, of hardship and danger and isolation . . . cultivated an inner sense of difference and an outward defiance” (147).

The second generation (“Saints, 1640–1675”) saw many colonists returning to England during the civil war and interregnum period. This forced some of those who stayed in America to justify why they chose to remain, which required considerations of what made America, and English Americans, special. Following the restoration, Charles II authorized another major push toward America and, especially in the 1670s, dramatically increased imperial control over the colonies. These activities caused alarm and antagonism among second-generation colonists, who began to think of English emigrants as “strangers” and “trespassers” and became concerned that their liberty, identity, and culture were at risk. The third generation (“Warriors, 1675–1692”) was shaped by events such as King Philip's War, Bacon's Rebellion, and the creation of the Dominion of New England, which resulted in a further defining and sharpening of the new American identity. Thus, by the end of the century, the colonists “had a distinctive identity that was defined by the world they inhabited—its land and community, laws and customs” (380). Yet, despite seeing themselves increasingly as Americans rather than English, colonists still respected English culture and derived their values of liberty and self-determination—the basis for their shared colonial culture—from English custom and law.

As demonstrated in his valuable and up-to-date “Further Reading” section, Gaskill has drawn, though not always explicitly, on a wide range of recent scholarly trends. These include the current resistance to the theory of American exceptionalism, the recognition of early crown intervention and the need for negotiation between the imperial center and colonial peripheries, and the idea of Atlantic cultures, laws, and constitutions being founded on the principles of “repugnancy and divergence” and English legal pluralism. These principles upheld the idea, first articulated in the colonial charters, that the colonies could develop legal and cultural mechanisms appropriate to their unique circumstances, drawing as needed from England's impressive range of law and custom, provided that these innovations did not deviate from English methods so much that they would be deemed repugnant to the fundamental sensibilities of English subjects. The creative and nuanced synthesis of these important historical debates, which have developed over the past two decades, makes Between Two Worlds much more than a narrative epic.

Gaskill also views many of these topics from a broader Atlantic perspective rather than through the narrow and traditional mainland viewpoint that tends to exemplify the exceptionalist argument. That being said, it is not always clear how Gaskill's often too-brief discussions of non-American colonies, such as Barbados, Bermuda, and Jamaica, contribute to the larger thesis about “how the English became Americans,” beyond the clear fact that all Atlantic colonies ultimately defined their own cultures based on their unique circumstances. Furthermore, although Gaskill in many ways strives to make the book comprehensive, there is still a strong focus on Virginia and New England, about which historians already know a great deal. While perhaps these colonies deserve pride of place in any lengthy discussion of seventeenth-century America, it would have been nice to see more about identity formation in, for example, the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. A deeper examination of these religiously diverse seventeenth-century latecomers would have allowed Gaskill to test his thesis about the gradual, generational alteration of identities from native English to creolized American.

One of this book's greatest strengths is its suitability for a wide readership of experts, students, and enthusiasts. Historians will be satisfied with the quality, relevance, and importance of Gaskill's central arguments, which are effectively developed throughout the book, but the lively prose, illustrations, and the breadth of the narrative also positions this book extremely well both for adoption in undergraduate and graduate classrooms and for prominent placement in commercial bookstores.