Abstract
NEARLY EVERY STUDENT and scholar of Pennsylvania history is familiar with the story of the Paxton Boys. It has come to occupy an infamous but lasting place in the landscape of colonial Pennsylvania history. Indeed, several important scholarly books published over the last twelve years have afforded considerable attention to the Paxton Boys and their motivations for murder. This essay is, for the most part, about what historians have said about those motivations and the conditions that precipitated them.
