Cities, States, and Citizens in the Atlantic World: Towards a New Narrative

In his book Mark Peterson presents an innovative perspective on the development of Boston and its New England hinterland as an early modern city-state. His purpose was to tell the story of Boston in its own right, shedding US national history as the dominant interpretative framework. The four reviewers pick up various strands, focusing, among others, on the validity of the city-state concept, especially as Boston did not become an incorporated city until 1822, criticize what one of them sees as an attempt to return New England to the center of early American historiography, and assess whether the city-state model can be applied elsewhere in early America and in the Atlantic World. In his response, Peterson argues that his aim was not to propose a city-state paradigm for comparative purposes, but rather to employ the city-state concept as the best way to explain Boston’s historical trajectory over two centuries, and to highlight the contingency of US history.

The Future of Macromarketing: Recommendations Based on a Content Analysis of the Past Twelve Years of the Journal of Macromarketing

In their essays published in the Silver Anniversary Issue (SAI) of the Journal of Macromarketing (2006), George Fisk and Mark Peterson independently outlined the current state of the discipline and made a list of visionary recommendations that would help macromarketers adapt and respond to the changing markets, marketing, and societies. These recommendations ranged from repositioning the discipline around the ideas of societal development to leading the way across disciplines toward achieving a sustainable world. Based on a thorough content analysis of the articles published in the Journal of Macromarketing since the SAI, we aim to report the extent to which macromarketing scholarship has responded to the recommendations of Fisk and Peterson. Utilizing the findings, we make a list of new recommendations that can assist macromarketers in fulfilling their mission of ‘saving the world’.