The New England Quarterly

Contents

The New England Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the history and culture of New England (United States), with an emphasis on scholarship relating to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Established in 1928, the journal has published research by historians, literary scholars, and archivists engaging primary sources such as the Mayflower Compact, Winthrop Papers, and collections from institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Contributors to the journal have brought forward studies connecting regional developments to events including the American Revolution, King Philip's War, the Industrial Revolution, and the American Civil War.

History

Founded in 1928 by a group including members of the American Antiquarian Society, the journal emerged amid interwar debates about regional identity involving figures associated with Harvard University, Brown University, and the New-York Historical Society. Early editors solicited articles on Puritanism, the Salem witch trials, and maritime commerce tied to ports such as Boston, Newport (Rhode Island), and Portland, Maine. During the mid-20th century the journal published work addressing the impact of the Second World War on New England industry and labor movements connected to unions like the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and debates reflected in collections at the Library of Congress. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the journal broadened to include cultural studies addressing figures such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and topics connected to institutions like the Boston Athenaeum and American Antiquarian Society.

The journal features research articles, archival notes, book reviews, and documentary editions covering political, social, economic, and cultural history linked to New England figures and events such as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams (statesman), Paul Revere, John Winthrop, and Roger Williams. Literary and intellectual history contributions examine authors including Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Sylvia Plath, and T.S. Eliot, while material culture studies draw on collections from the Peabody Essex Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum, and Smithsonian Institution. Thematic issues have addressed topics ranging from Abolitionism in the United States and the Underground Railroad to immigration patterns involving communities from Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Cape Verde. Intersections with law and politics appear through documents related to the Constitution of the United States, Massachusetts Constitution, and legal cases archived at the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Published quarterly, the journal operates with an editorial board composed of scholars from institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Brown University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Dartmouth College. The peer-review process engages outside referees drawn from specialists in early American history, literary studies, and archival science affiliated with organizations like the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association. Special issues have been guest-edited by scholars connected to centers including the Guggenheim Foundation, the Newberry Library, and the Institute of Early American History and Culture. Publishing partnerships and distribution have involved university presses and regional societies such as the Massachusetts Historical Society and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Contributors have included leading historians and critics such as Bernard Bailyn, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Gordon S. Wood, Annette Gordon-Reed, Jill Lepore, Edmund S. Morgan, and David Hackett Fischer. The journal has printed influential articles addressing colonial governance and rights tied to the Mayflower Compact, legal analyses invoking figures like John Marshall, cultural readings of texts by Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson, and archival discoveries related to correspondences of George Washington, John Adams, and Samuel Prescott. Documentary editions have featured transcriptions from the papers of Benjamin Franklin, ship logs from Whaling in New England, and industrial records from textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Scholars have cited the journal in works on American historiography, including studies of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the historical memory of events such as the Boston Tea Party and the Lexington and Concord skirmishes. Reviews in outlets connected to the American Historical Review, Journal of American History, and regional newspapers like the Boston Globe and Hartford Courant have noted the journal's role in shaping debates about regional identity, preservation campaigns associated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and curricular developments at universities including Boston University and University of Connecticut. The journal's articles have informed museum exhibitions at institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and public history projects with state archives in Maine State Archives and Vermont Historical Society.

The journal is indexed in major bibliographic databases and catalogs used by scholars and libraries such as the Library of Congress, WorldCat, JSTOR, and databases curated by the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association. Institutional access is provided via university library subscriptions at Harvard University Library, Yale University Library, Boston Public Library, and consortia like the OCLC. Digitized back issues appear in digital repositories and are discoverable through union catalogs and archival finding aids associated with the Massachusetts Historical Society and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Category:American history journals Category:Publications established in 1928