William Douglass was better known as a doctor than as a man of letters; indeed, from 1721--when he rose to prominence as a result of his pamphlets opposing Cotton Mather and others on their plan to inoculate the populace of Boston for smallpox--to his death in 1752. Douglass was the generally accepted head of the medical profession in that city and one of the most distinguished American physicians of the day. Douglass's primary literary contribution was A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements, and Present State of the British Settlements in North-America (1747-1752). Max Savelle may have exaggerated a bit when he credited this work with being "the first important literary and documentary expression to an American continental self-consciousness" and Douglas with being the first author "to present the American colonies as a unity," but his statement does illustrate the importance some have attached to...