Reviews of  "Liberty Men and Great Proprietors ": "....The folks from Balltown were just plain bad ass and wouldn't put up with the impositions of the Great Proprietor's form of government nor their ideology. These settlers burned barns, broke men out of jail, threatened others and stuck to their guns in order to not be surveyed and have to pay 4 times the value of their land to the Great Proprietors. They were the Jeffersonians, a group of men who subscribed to the idea that ALL men are created equal, that a man should be able to worship at the church of his choice. The Federalists were considered aristocratic men, religiously dogmatic, “supercilious Lordlings, whose haughtiness you find on trial to be so insufferable........”   Noel's Reviews  * " Taylor’s history of the backcountry revolts in Maine is a detailed account of how the settlers “squatting” on the land fought against the moneyed gentlemen whose dubious land grants were honored by the legislature. This is an important book for readers looking to understand the years immediately after the Revolution and how the ideals of personal liberty and political freedom were worked out – sometimes violently – on the ground. " Howard Mansfield  * " This was a very good book very much about class - the agrarians who began to settle Maine's backcountry in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War resisting elite claims to the land. Taylor was pretty clearly on the side of the Liberty Men - those who resisted. It's very well written; the introduction does an excellent job of summarizing and laying out the book; interesting narrative. Lots of little episodes of class conflict of farmer v. landowner. " Kris  *