America at 1750: A Social Portrait. Richard Hofstadter. 1973

By 1750, the colonies were pluralistic and commercialized. These developments were shaped primarily by the middle class. The population of the nation was diverse and there was an influx of immigrants seeking land. It is the rise of the middle class that is most important in Hofstadter's work here. He notes how they managed to break the power of the old world of the church, royalty, nobility, and the universities. All of these were oppressive in nature. Hofstadter notes that the healthy middle class was an indication of a non-docile labor force like the one found in England. As to the Great Awakening, Hofstadter places little emphasis on this seminal event.