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American revolutions : A continental History 1750-1804
de Alan Taylor
NORTON, 2016, 681P.
Often wishfully understood as a high-minded, orderly event, the American Revolution builds in this masterful history like a ground fire overspreading Britain's mainland colonies, fueled by local conditions and resistant to control. Emerging from the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, the revolution pivoted on western expansion as well as resistance to new British taxes. In the seaboard cities, leading Patriots mobilised popular support by summoning crowds to harass opponents. Along the frontier, the war often featured brutal guerrilla violence that persisted long after the peace treaty. The discord smouldering within the fragile new nation called forth a movement to consolidate power in a Federal Constitution. But it was Jefferson s expansive "empire of liberty" that carried the Revolution forward, propelling white settlement and slavery west, preparing the ground for a new conflagration. This magisterial history reveals the American Revolution in its time, free of wishful hindsight.
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