A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early ... and the University of North Carolina Press)

A social, economic, and political study of Philadelphia merchants, this study presents both the spirit and statistics of merchant life. Doerflinger studies the Philadelphia merchant community from three perspectives: their commercial world, their confrontation with the Revolution and its aftermath, and their role in diversifying the local economy. The analysis of entrepreneurship dominates the study and challenges long-standing assumptions about American economic history.

"A solid, well-written, and brilliantly perceptive study of the economic structure and behavior of the merchant class in Revolutionary Philadelphia."--Richard Alan Ryerson, The Adams Papers