This book, Patrick Conley's thirty-first and his fourth anthology of Rhode Island historical essays, analyzes, like his previous collections, a diversity of Rhode Island topics. Most useful to the student of Rhode Island history are the three introductory essays. The first is a lengthy survey of the state's history written for its 350th anniversary in 1986; the second describes in detail the factors that dramatically transformed Rhode Island from a Republican to a Democratic state (1920-1940); and the third is a local morale booster outlining Rhode Island's eight major contributions to the formation of the United States (1636-1791).The thirty-one remaining essays deal with law (Conley's professional and academic specialty), reviews of Rhode Island books, heritage advocacy, and biographical sketches of select members of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, over which Conley has long presided as president.This book concludes with two very personal and introspective biographies - one of Conley's philanthropic wife Gail (his "navigator") and the other of Conley himself, revealing the many facets of his life from childhood to the present.