The Boston Massacre

Studies of the British military occupation of American cities during the “short” (1776–1783) revolutionary era have proliferated, with two books recently in print and another on the way soon. The longer revolutionary era—for the thirteen colonies, anyway—is another story. Relations between redcoats and residents before 1775 (or after 1783 for colonies that stayed in the empire), conducted under terms of manifest imperial coercive intention, have been noticed only in passing if at all. Now they can and should be incorporated into what is emerging as a lively interpretive subfield, and Serena Zabin's work on pre–midnight ride Boston deftly lights the way toward that end. Some British officers brought wives and children to Boston. Many who did not formed families—or romantic, sexual, and sometimes domestic attachments—with civilians once in the colony. Off-duty redcoats with artisanal skills took occasional side gigs in the town's economy, although Zabin disputes standing textbook claims that

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