Past and Prologue - Politics and Memory in the American Revolution

How American colonists reinterpreted their British and colonial histories to help establish political and cultural independence from Britain. In Past and Prologue, Michael Hattem shows how colonists' changing understandings of their British and colonial histories shaped the politics of the American Revolution and the origins of American national identity. Between the 1760s and 1800s, Americans stopped thinking of the British past as their own history and created a new historical tradition that would form the foundation for what subsequent generations would think of as "American history." This change was a crucial part of the cultural transformation at the heart of the Revolution by which colonists went from thinking of themselves as British subjects to thinking of themselves as American citizens. Rather than liberating Americans from the past-as many historians have argued-the Revolution actually made the past matter more than ever. Past and Prologue shows how the process of reinterpreting the past played a critical role in the founding of the nation

About the author

Michael D. Hattem is Associate Director of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. He has taught history at Knox College and Lang College at The New School.

Product details

• Authors: Michael D. Hattem
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2020
• EAN: 9780300234961
• ISBN: 978-0-300-23496-1
• No. of pages: 320
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Georgian Era (1714-1837), HISTORY / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775), HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Stuart Era (1603-1714), British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, History of the Americas, 1714–1837 (Georgian period), C 1600 To C 1700, C 1700 To C 1800