Conclusion and Further Reading
By concentrating on paratexts, my intention is to show that texts were presented to the audience in a variety of different ways, sometimes by the author and other times by printers. The various modes of presentations provide insights into how the Paxton Boys debate unfolded. And most significantly, paratexts affected the way readers understood the printed arguments for and against the rioters, and so help us to understand a little more about the appeal of Paxton Boys texts.
Further Reading
- Angel-Luke O'Donnell, "The Politics of the Print Medium: The Professional Code and the 1764 Paxton Boys Debate," Book History (forthcoming 2019).
- Marcy J. Dinius and Sonia Hazard, guest editors, Special Issue: "Keywords in Early American Literature and Material Texts," Early American Studies 16.4 (2018).
- Joshua Ratner, "Paratexts," Early American Studies (2018), 16:4, 733 – 740.
- Gerard Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, translated by Jane E. Lewin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
- Peter Silver, Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008).
- Kevin Kenny, Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn's Holy Experiment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
- Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America, 2 volumes (Worcester: 1810), II.
