Abandoning America brings together the biographies of hundreds of people who crossed over to New England in the 1630s but braved the Atlantic again to return home. Some went back quickly, disenchanted or discouraged. Many invested everything to make New England a success, yet after ten or twenty years resolved to leave America behind. They reached their decisions in the context of dramatic events in England - civil war, fresh opportunities in Cromwell's commonwealth - and against a backdrop of personal dilemmas about family ties, health, prospects and profit. The stories of these people are usually overlooked because they are at odds with the onward march of American history. Abandoning America reconstructs, from thousands of fragments of evidence, the story of individual lives: not only magistrates and ministers, merchants and dissidents, but also wives and widows, servants, apprentices, military men, surgeons, shoemakers and shopkeepers. The book traces settlers' lives with an eye to the information historians look for. In a field where primary sources are thin and difficult, Abandoning America is an excellent tool for reference and research. The book is fully annotated and offers a substantial introduction providing for further historical context. SUSAN HARDMAN MOORE is Senior Lecturer, School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh.