NATIONAL BESTSELLER Lemaster Carlyle, the president of the country's most prestigious university, and his wife, Julie, the divinity school's deputy dean, are America's most prominent and powerful African American couple. Driving home through a swirling blizzard late one night, the couple skids off the road. Near the sight of their accident they discover a dead body. To her horror, Julia recognizes the body as a prominent academic and one of her former lovers. In the wake of the death, the icy veneer of their town Elm Harbor, a place Julie calls "the heart of whiteness," begins to crack, having devastating consequences for a prominent local family and sending shock waves all the way to the White House.

When The Emperor of Ocean Park was published, the Observer declared: 'The book is superb, both as a thriller and as a novel of social observation.' Now, with that same astute social observation, narrative drive, and richness of plot and character, Stephen Carter returns us to the New England university town of Elm Harbor, where the murder of a renowned African-American economist opens a door on the racial complications of the town's past, on one family's secrets, and on the most hidden and powerful bastions of African-American political influence. At the centre are Lemaster and Julia Carlyle. He is president of the university, she is a dean at the divinity school - African-Americans living in 'the heart of whiteness'. Lemaster's connections lead to the President of the United States, his old college room-mate. Julia is connected to the dead man, Kellen Zant, her lover before she met Lemaster. The meeting point of these connections - a murder committed and covered up in Elm Harbor thirty years ago, and the shocking plans carried out by a fraternity of the 'darker nation' - forms the core of a mystery that deepens even as Julia, guided by clues left her by Zant, closes in on the politically earth-shattering motive behind his murder. Suspenseful from first to last, galvanising in its exploration of the profound difference between allegiance to ideas and to people, New England White is a resounding confirmation of Stephen Carter's gifts as a writer of fiction.

This volume, with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., advances efforts to correct the historical record about the racial complexity and richness characteristic of rural New England s past"

A biography of Peregrine White, born on the Mayflower in 1620 and longtime resident of Marshfield, Massachusetts from c. 1640 until his death in 1704. Author and Historian Stephen C. O'Neill says: Peregrine White was born aboard the Mayflower 400 years ago and was a 55 year resident of Marshfield. The step-son of colonial governor, Edward Winslow, and half-brother to governor, Josiah Winslow. Peregrine was a Freeman of the Colony, served as a constable, surveyor of highways, militia ensign-bearer and local militia captain. The research explores White's interaction with the Native people, notably with Josias Wampatuck Chickatabut, sachem of the Massachusetts people, and his service during the King Philip's War. Local history followers, students and researchers will value the consolidation of data from dozens of sources into one readable illustrated book. He goes on to say that Peregrines life reflects the life and times of Plymouth Colony until the beginning of the Massachusetts Bay Colony of 17th Century England. Target audience is people of all ages interested in the history of Plymouth Colony, Pilgrims, Native Americans, and genealogy .