Author: T. H. Breen
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429932600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
Before there could be a revolution, there was a rebellion; before patriots, there were insurgents. Challenging and displacing decades of received wisdom, T. H. Breen's strikingly original book explains how ordinary Americans—most of them members of farm families living in small communities—were drawn into a successful insurgency against imperial authority. This is the compelling story of our national political origins that most Americans do not know. It is a story of rumor, charity, vengeance, and restraint. American Insurgents, American Patriots reminds us that revolutions are violent events. They provoke passion and rage, a willingness to use violence to achieve political ends, a deep sense of betrayal, and a strong religious conviction that God expects an oppressed people to defend their rights. The American Revolution was no exception. A few celebrated figures in the Continental Congress do not make for a revolution. It requires tens of thousands of ordinary men and women willing to sacrifice, kill, and be killed. Breen not only gives the history of these ordinary Americans but, drawing upon a wealth of rarely seen documents, restores their primacy to American independence. Mobilizing two years before the Declaration of Independence, American insurgents in all thirteen colonies concluded that resistance to British oppression required organized violence against the state. They channeled popular rage through elected committees of safety and observation, which before 1776 were the heart of American resistance. American Insurgents, American Patriots is the stunning account of their insurgency, without which there would have been no independent republic as we know it.
American Insurgents, American Patriots
Author: T. H. Breen
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429932600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
Before there could be a revolution, there was a rebellion; before patriots, there were insurgents. Challenging and displacing decades of received wisdom, T. H. Breen's strikingly original book explains how ordinary Americans—most of them members of farm families living in small communities—were drawn into a successful insurgency against imperial authority. This is the compelling story of our national political origins that most Americans do not know. It is a story of rumor, charity, vengeance, and restraint. American Insurgents, American Patriots reminds us that revolutions are violent events. They provoke passion and rage, a willingness to use violence to achieve political ends, a deep sense of betrayal, and a strong religious conviction that God expects an oppressed people to defend their rights. The American Revolution was no exception. A few celebrated figures in the Continental Congress do not make for a revolution. It requires tens of thousands of ordinary men and women willing to sacrifice, kill, and be killed. Breen not only gives the history of these ordinary Americans but, drawing upon a wealth of rarely seen documents, restores their primacy to American independence. Mobilizing two years before the Declaration of Independence, American insurgents in all thirteen colonies concluded that resistance to British oppression required organized violence against the state. They channeled popular rage through elected committees of safety and observation, which before 1776 were the heart of American resistance. American Insurgents, American Patriots is the stunning account of their insurgency, without which there would have been no independent republic as we know it.
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429932600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
Before there could be a revolution, there was a rebellion; before patriots, there were insurgents. Challenging and displacing decades of received wisdom, T. H. Breen's strikingly original book explains how ordinary Americans—most of them members of farm families living in small communities—were drawn into a successful insurgency against imperial authority. This is the compelling story of our national political origins that most Americans do not know. It is a story of rumor, charity, vengeance, and restraint. American Insurgents, American Patriots reminds us that revolutions are violent events. They provoke passion and rage, a willingness to use violence to achieve political ends, a deep sense of betrayal, and a strong religious conviction that God expects an oppressed people to defend their rights. The American Revolution was no exception. A few celebrated figures in the Continental Congress do not make for a revolution. It requires tens of thousands of ordinary men and women willing to sacrifice, kill, and be killed. Breen not only gives the history of these ordinary Americans but, drawing upon a wealth of rarely seen documents, restores their primacy to American independence. Mobilizing two years before the Declaration of Independence, American insurgents in all thirteen colonies concluded that resistance to British oppression required organized violence against the state. They channeled popular rage through elected committees of safety and observation, which before 1776 were the heart of American resistance. American Insurgents, American Patriots is the stunning account of their insurgency, without which there would have been no independent republic as we know it.
The Will of the People
Author: T. H. Breen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674242068
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
“Important and lucidly written...The American Revolution involved not simply the wisdom of a few great men but the passions, fears, and religiosity of ordinary people.” —Gordon S. Wood In this boldly innovative work, T. H. Breen spotlights a crucial missing piece in the stories we tell about the American Revolution. From New Hampshire to Georgia, it was ordinary people who became the face of resistance. Without them the Revolution would have failed. They sustained the commitment to independence when victory seemed in doubt and chose law over vengeance when their communities teetered on the brink of anarchy. The Will of the People offers a vivid account of how, across the thirteen colonies, men and women negotiated the revolutionary experience, accepting huge personal sacrifice, setting up daring experiments in self-government, and going to extraordinary lengths to preserve the rule of law. After the war they avoided the violence and extremism that have compromised so many other revolutions since. A masterful storyteller, Breen recovers the forgotten history of our nation’s true founders. “The American Revolution was made not just on the battlefields or in the minds of intellectuals, Breen argues in this elegant and persuasive work. Communities of ordinary men and women—farmers, workers, and artisans who kept the revolutionary faith until victory was achieved—were essential to the effort.” —Annette Gordon-Reed “Breen traces the many ways in which exercising authority made local committees pragmatic...acting as a brake on the kind of violent excess into which revolutions so easily devolve.” —Wall Street Journal
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674242068
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
“Important and lucidly written...The American Revolution involved not simply the wisdom of a few great men but the passions, fears, and religiosity of ordinary people.” —Gordon S. Wood In this boldly innovative work, T. H. Breen spotlights a crucial missing piece in the stories we tell about the American Revolution. From New Hampshire to Georgia, it was ordinary people who became the face of resistance. Without them the Revolution would have failed. They sustained the commitment to independence when victory seemed in doubt and chose law over vengeance when their communities teetered on the brink of anarchy. The Will of the People offers a vivid account of how, across the thirteen colonies, men and women negotiated the revolutionary experience, accepting huge personal sacrifice, setting up daring experiments in self-government, and going to extraordinary lengths to preserve the rule of law. After the war they avoided the violence and extremism that have compromised so many other revolutions since. A masterful storyteller, Breen recovers the forgotten history of our nation’s true founders. “The American Revolution was made not just on the battlefields or in the minds of intellectuals, Breen argues in this elegant and persuasive work. Communities of ordinary men and women—farmers, workers, and artisans who kept the revolutionary faith until victory was achieved—were essential to the effort.” —Annette Gordon-Reed “Breen traces the many ways in which exercising authority made local committees pragmatic...acting as a brake on the kind of violent excess into which revolutions so easily devolve.” —Wall Street Journal
This Violent Empire
Author: Carroll Smith-Rosenberg
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807895911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 509
Book Description
This Violent Empire traces the origins of American violence, racism, and paranoia to the founding moments of the new nation and the initial instability of Americans' national sense of self. Fusing cultural and political analyses to create a new form of political history, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg explores the ways the founding generation, lacking a common history, governmental infrastructures, and shared culture, solidified their national sense of self by imagining a series of "Others" (African Americans, Native Americans, women, the propertyless) whose differences from European American male founders overshadowed the differences that divided those founders. These "Others," dangerous and polluting, had to be excluded from the European American body politic. Feared, but also desired, they refused to be marginalized, incurring increasingly enraged enactments of their political and social exclusion that shaped our long history of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. Close readings of political rhetoric during the Constitutional debates reveal the genesis of this long history.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807895911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 509
Book Description
This Violent Empire traces the origins of American violence, racism, and paranoia to the founding moments of the new nation and the initial instability of Americans' national sense of self. Fusing cultural and political analyses to create a new form of political history, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg explores the ways the founding generation, lacking a common history, governmental infrastructures, and shared culture, solidified their national sense of self by imagining a series of "Others" (African Americans, Native Americans, women, the propertyless) whose differences from European American male founders overshadowed the differences that divided those founders. These "Others," dangerous and polluting, had to be excluded from the European American body politic. Feared, but also desired, they refused to be marginalized, incurring increasingly enraged enactments of their political and social exclusion that shaped our long history of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. Close readings of political rhetoric during the Constitutional debates reveal the genesis of this long history.
Divided Loyalties
Author: Richard M. Ketchum
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805061208
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
"From the outset, the Revolution was a civil war, cruelly dividing families and friends. The dense, compact character of 1760s New York City - a maritime community of about 18,000 souls - brought those divisions into stark relief. As Ketchum shows us, it was, then as now, a city whose lifeblood was commerce and whose consuming interest was money. However, money was to be made - and its interests defended - in different ways. The DeLanceys were Anglican, well-connected, urban merchants, and they threw in their lot with the crown. Their long-time rivals, the Presbyterian Livingstons, were landed Hudson River gentry and patriots. Both felt the pinch of London's new taxes. But beyond pecuniary matters, both had deeply held convictions about good and just government and proper relations with the other country. The irony was that the allegiance of loyalist and patriot alike was not to the king or to England, but to what they saw as their own country - America."--BOOK JACKET.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805061208
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
"From the outset, the Revolution was a civil war, cruelly dividing families and friends. The dense, compact character of 1760s New York City - a maritime community of about 18,000 souls - brought those divisions into stark relief. As Ketchum shows us, it was, then as now, a city whose lifeblood was commerce and whose consuming interest was money. However, money was to be made - and its interests defended - in different ways. The DeLanceys were Anglican, well-connected, urban merchants, and they threw in their lot with the crown. Their long-time rivals, the Presbyterian Livingstons, were landed Hudson River gentry and patriots. Both felt the pinch of London's new taxes. But beyond pecuniary matters, both had deeply held convictions about good and just government and proper relations with the other country. The irony was that the allegiance of loyalist and patriot alike was not to the king or to England, but to what they saw as their own country - America."--BOOK JACKET.
Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes
Author: Arthur S. Lefkowitz
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1611211123
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430
Book Description
This “gripping” history recounts the lives of American patriots who were a part of Arnold’s failed Canadian invasion during the Revolutionary War (Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution). Hundreds of men followed Col. Benedict Arnold in an expedition to capture Quebec in 1775. After Arnold was wounded, his troops found themselves outnumbered and trapped inside the city. Award-winning author and Revolutionary-era historian, Arthur S. Lefkowitz takes a close look at some of the brave veterans who fought in Arnold’s failed campaign and explores the extraordinary lives they led afterward. In Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes, Lefkowitz paints vividly detailed portraits of early American patriots who continued their fight for independence after Arnold’s campaign. Some of the men portrayed include Charles Porterfield (who led troops at Brandwine); Daniel Morgan (the hero of Cowpens); Henry Dearborn and Timothy Bigelow (who fought alongside Arnold at Saratoga); Christian Febiger and Return Jonathan Meigs (who were at the forefront of the attack on Stony Point); Simeon Thayer (who refused to surrender at Fort Mifflin); and Col. Aaron Burr (whose wartime record was overshadowed by his later political career and duel with Alexander Hamilton). Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes “will delight readers who are looking for something new about the War of Independence” (John Ferling, author of Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence).
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1611211123
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430
Book Description
This “gripping” history recounts the lives of American patriots who were a part of Arnold’s failed Canadian invasion during the Revolutionary War (Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution). Hundreds of men followed Col. Benedict Arnold in an expedition to capture Quebec in 1775. After Arnold was wounded, his troops found themselves outnumbered and trapped inside the city. Award-winning author and Revolutionary-era historian, Arthur S. Lefkowitz takes a close look at some of the brave veterans who fought in Arnold’s failed campaign and explores the extraordinary lives they led afterward. In Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes, Lefkowitz paints vividly detailed portraits of early American patriots who continued their fight for independence after Arnold’s campaign. Some of the men portrayed include Charles Porterfield (who led troops at Brandwine); Daniel Morgan (the hero of Cowpens); Henry Dearborn and Timothy Bigelow (who fought alongside Arnold at Saratoga); Christian Febiger and Return Jonathan Meigs (who were at the forefront of the attack on Stony Point); Simeon Thayer (who refused to surrender at Fort Mifflin); and Col. Aaron Burr (whose wartime record was overshadowed by his later political career and duel with Alexander Hamilton). Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes “will delight readers who are looking for something new about the War of Independence” (John Ferling, author of Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence).
George Washington's Journey
Author: T.H. Breen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451675445
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
This is George Washington in the surprising role of political strategist. T.H. Breen introduces us to a George Washington we rarely meet. During his first term as president, he decided that the only way to fulfill the Revolution was to take the new federal government directly to the people. He organized an extraordinary journey carrying him to all thirteen states. It transformed American political culture. For Washington, the stakes were high. If the nation fragmented, as it had almost done after the war, it could never become the strong, independent nation for which he had fought. In scores of communities, he communicated a powerful and enduring message—that America was now a nation, not a loose collection of states. And the people responded to his invitation in ways that he could never have predicted.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451675445
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
This is George Washington in the surprising role of political strategist. T.H. Breen introduces us to a George Washington we rarely meet. During his first term as president, he decided that the only way to fulfill the Revolution was to take the new federal government directly to the people. He organized an extraordinary journey carrying him to all thirteen states. It transformed American political culture. For Washington, the stakes were high. If the nation fragmented, as it had almost done after the war, it could never become the strong, independent nation for which he had fought. In scores of communities, he communicated a powerful and enduring message—that America was now a nation, not a loose collection of states. And the people responded to his invitation in ways that he could never have predicted.
Freedom Just Around the Corner
Author: Walter A. McDougall
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060197897
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 660
Book Description
This new history of the United States is based on a global interpretation by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. 7 maps.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060197897
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 660
Book Description
This new history of the United States is based on a global interpretation by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. 7 maps.
The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America
Author: Frank Lambert
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400825539
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
How did the United States, founded as colonies with explicitly religious aspirations, come to be the first modern state whose commitment to the separation of church and state was reflected in its constitution? Frank Lambert explains why this happened, offering in the process a synthesis of American history from the first British arrivals through Thomas Jefferson's controversial presidency. Lambert recognizes that two sets of spiritual fathers defined the place of religion in early America: what Lambert calls the Planting Fathers, who brought Old World ideas and dreams of building a "City upon a Hill," and the Founding Fathers, who determined the constitutional arrangement of religion in the new republic. While the former proselytized the "one true faith," the latter emphasized religious freedom over religious purity. Lambert locates this shift in the mid-eighteenth century. In the wake of evangelical revival, immigration by new dissenters, and population expansion, there emerged a marketplace of religion characterized by sectarian competition, pluralism, and widened choice. During the American Revolution, dissenters found sympathetic lawmakers who favored separating church and state, and the free marketplace of religion gained legal status as the Founders began the daunting task of uniting thirteen disparate colonies. To avoid discord in an increasingly pluralistic and contentious society, the Founders left the religious arena free of government intervention save for the guarantee of free exercise for all. Religious people and groups were also free to seek political influence, ensuring that religion's place in America would always be a contested one, but never a state-regulated one. An engaging and highly readable account of early American history, this book shows how religious freedom came to be recognized not merely as toleration of dissent but as a natural right to be enjoyed by all Americans.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400825539
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
How did the United States, founded as colonies with explicitly religious aspirations, come to be the first modern state whose commitment to the separation of church and state was reflected in its constitution? Frank Lambert explains why this happened, offering in the process a synthesis of American history from the first British arrivals through Thomas Jefferson's controversial presidency. Lambert recognizes that two sets of spiritual fathers defined the place of religion in early America: what Lambert calls the Planting Fathers, who brought Old World ideas and dreams of building a "City upon a Hill," and the Founding Fathers, who determined the constitutional arrangement of religion in the new republic. While the former proselytized the "one true faith," the latter emphasized religious freedom over religious purity. Lambert locates this shift in the mid-eighteenth century. In the wake of evangelical revival, immigration by new dissenters, and population expansion, there emerged a marketplace of religion characterized by sectarian competition, pluralism, and widened choice. During the American Revolution, dissenters found sympathetic lawmakers who favored separating church and state, and the free marketplace of religion gained legal status as the Founders began the daunting task of uniting thirteen disparate colonies. To avoid discord in an increasingly pluralistic and contentious society, the Founders left the religious arena free of government intervention save for the guarantee of free exercise for all. Religious people and groups were also free to seek political influence, ensuring that religion's place in America would always be a contested one, but never a state-regulated one. An engaging and highly readable account of early American history, this book shows how religious freedom came to be recognized not merely as toleration of dissent but as a natural right to be enjoyed by all Americans.
American Leviathan
Author: Patrick Griffin
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780809024919
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
The dark and bloody ground of the frontier during the years of the American Revolution created much that we associate with the idea of America. Between 1763 and 1795, westerners not only participated in a war of independence but also engaged in a revolution that ushered in fundamental changes in the relationship between individuals and society. In the West, the process was stripped down to its essence: uncertainty, competition, disorder, and frenzied and contradictory attempts to reestablish order. The violent nature of the contest to reconstitute sovereignty produced a revolutionary settlement, riddled with what we would regard as paradox, in which new notions of race went hand in hand with new definitions of citizenship. In the almost Hobbesian state of nature that the West had become, westerners created a liberating yet frightening vision of what society was to be. In vivid detail, Patrick Griffin recaptures a chaotic world of settlers, Indians, speculators, British regulars, and American and state officials vying with one another to remake the American West during its most formative period.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780809024919
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
The dark and bloody ground of the frontier during the years of the American Revolution created much that we associate with the idea of America. Between 1763 and 1795, westerners not only participated in a war of independence but also engaged in a revolution that ushered in fundamental changes in the relationship between individuals and society. In the West, the process was stripped down to its essence: uncertainty, competition, disorder, and frenzied and contradictory attempts to reestablish order. The violent nature of the contest to reconstitute sovereignty produced a revolutionary settlement, riddled with what we would regard as paradox, in which new notions of race went hand in hand with new definitions of citizenship. In the almost Hobbesian state of nature that the West had become, westerners created a liberating yet frightening vision of what society was to be. In vivid detail, Patrick Griffin recaptures a chaotic world of settlers, Indians, speculators, British regulars, and American and state officials vying with one another to remake the American West during its most formative period.
The Marketplace of Revolution
Author: T. H. Breen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019518131X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
In a richly interdisciplinary narrative, a historian offers a boldly innovative interpretation of the mobilization of ordinary Americans on the eve of independence. 19 halftones & 21 line illustrations.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019518131X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
In a richly interdisciplinary narrative, a historian offers a boldly innovative interpretation of the mobilization of ordinary Americans on the eve of independence. 19 halftones & 21 line illustrations.