"Our Poor Distracted Condition": Kinship, Friendship, and Society in a Seventeenth-Century New England Town

From its settlement in 1635, Newbury, Massachusetts was a contentious town. A series of disagreements divided the settlers and undermined the social peace of the town. The disputes culminated in a divisive, public conflict in the congregation that spilled into the civil courts and nearly destroyed the church and the society. Underlying these disputes, a deeply rooted pattern of social relationships indelibly affected the early years of the town. First published in 1974 as a Ph.D. dissertation, “Our Poor Distracted Condition” is a tour de force examination of the forces behind Newbury’s dysfunctional social organization. Employing research methods and techniques drawing from such diverse disciplines as demography, statistics, psychology, and network theory, it remains a groundbreaking example of interdisciplinary research.