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The American Revolution Reader is a collection of leading essays on the American revolutionary era from the eve of the imperial crisis through George Washington's presidency. Articles have been chosen to represent classic themes, such as the British-colonial relationship during the eighteenth century, the political and ideological issues underlying colonial protests, the military conflict, the debates over the Constitution, and the rise of political parties. The volume also captures how the field has been reshaped in recent years, including essays that cover class strife and street politics, the international context of the Revolution, and the roles of women, African Americans and Native Americans, as well as the reshaping of the British Empire after the war.
With essays by Gordon S. Wood, Mary Beth Norton, T.H. Breen, John M. Murrin, Gary B. Nash, Woody Holton, Rosemarie Zagarri, John Shy, Alan Taylor, Maya Jasanoff, and many other prominent historians, the collection is ideal for classroom use and any student of the American Revolution.
List of contents
Part I: Imperial Context 1. Liberty, Province, and Empire
Ned C. Landsman 2. The Nation Abroad: The Atlantic Debate over Colonial Taxation
Eliga H. Gould Part II: Imperial Crisis 3. "Baubles of Britain": The American and Consumer Revolutions of the Eighteenth Century
T.H. Breen 4. 1776: The Countercyclical Revolution
John M. Murrin 5. "Rebel against Rebel": Enslaved Virginians and the Coming of the American Revolution
Woody Holton6. Twenty-seven Reasons for Independence
Robert G. Parkinson Part III: War and the Home Front 7. The Military Conflict Considered as a Revolutionary War
John Shy 8. Class War? Class Struggles during the American Revolution in Virginia
Michael A. McDonnell 9. Eighteenth-Century American Women in Peace and War: The Case of the Loyalists
Mary Beth Norton 10. Restraint and Retaliation: The North Carolina Militias and the Backcountry War of 1780-1782
Wayne E. Lee Part IV: American Constitutionalism and Nation-Building 11. Writing on a Clean Slate: The Struggle to Craft State Constitutions, 1776-1780
Gary B. Nash 12. Interests and Disinterestedness in the Making of the Constitution
Gordon S. Wood 13. Constitutional Recognition of a Free Religious Market
Frank Lambert 14. Aristocracy Assailed: The Ideology of Backcountry Anti-Federalism
Saul Cornell 15. "To Man Their Rights": The Frontier Revolution
Alan Taylor Part V: A Social Revolution? 16. The Revolution in Black Life
Ira Berlin 17. The Continuing Revolution in Indian Country
Colin G. Calloway 18. The Rights of Woman
Rosemarie Zagarri 19. From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution
Aaron S. Fogleman Part VI: Legacies 20. The Other Side of Revolution: Loyalists in the British Empire
Maya Jasanoff 21. The Greatness of George Washington
Gordon S. Wood
About the author
Denver Brunsman is Assistant Professor of History at George Washington University. He is the author of The Evil Necessity: British Naval Impressment in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World and an editor of Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development, Sixth edition (Routledge).
David J. Silverman is Professor of History at George Washington University. He is the author of Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America and an editor of Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development, Sixth edition (Routledge), among other books.
Summary
The American Revolution Reader is a collection of leading essays on the American revolutionary era from the eve of the imperial crisis through George Washington’s presidency. Articles have been chosen to represent classic themes, such as the British-colonial relationship during the eighteenth century, the political and ideological issues underlying colonial protests, the military conflict, the debates over the Constitution, and the rise of political parties. The volume also captures how the field has been reshaped in recent years, including essays that cover class strife and street politics, the international context of the Revolution, and the roles of women, African Americans and Native Americans, as well as the reshaping of the British Empire after the war.
With essays by Gordon S. Wood, Mary Beth Norton, T.H. Breen, John M. Murrin, Gary B. Nash, Woody Holton, Rosemarie Zagarri, John Shy, Alan Taylor, Maya Jasanoff, and many other prominent historians, the collection is ideal for classroom use and any student of the American Revolution.
