Independence: The Tangled Roots of the American Revolution

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Colonial Period (1600-1775), Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
Cover of the book Independence: The Tangled Roots of the American Revolution by Thomas P. Slaughter, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Thomas P. Slaughter ISBN: 9780374712075
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: June 10, 2014
Imprint: Hill and Wang Language: English
Author: Thomas P. Slaughter
ISBN: 9780374712075
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: June 10, 2014
Imprint: Hill and Wang
Language: English

An important new interpretation of the American colonists' 150-year struggle to achieve independence

"What do we mean by the Revolution?" John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson in 1815. "The war? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an effect and consequence of it." As the distinguished historian Thomas P. Slaughter shows in this landmark book, the long process of revolution reached back more than a century before 1776, and it touched on virtually every aspect of the colonies' laws, commerce, social structures, religious sentiments, family ties, and political interests. And Slaughter's comprehensive work makes clear that the British who chose to go to North America chafed under imperial rule from the start, vigorously disputing many of the colonies' founding charters.
When the British said the Americans were typically "independent," they meant to disparage them as lawless and disloyal. But the Americans insisted on their moral courage and political principles, and regarded their independence as a great virtue, as they regarded their love of freedom and their loyalty to local institutions. Over the years, their struggles to define this independence took many forms, and Slaughter's compelling narrative takes us from New England and Nova Scotia to New York and Pennsylvania, and south to the Carolinas, as colonists resisted unsympathetic royal governors, smuggled to evade British duties on imported goods (tea was only one of many), and, eventually, began to organize for armed uprisings.
Britain, especially after its victories over France in the 1750s, was eager to crush these rebellions, but the Americans' opposition only intensified, as did dark conspiracy theories about their enemies—whether British, Native American, or French.In Independence, Slaughter resets and clarifies the terms in which we may understand this remarkable evolution, showing how and why a critical mass of colonists determined that they could not be both independent and subject to the British Crown. By 1775–76, they had become revolutionaries—going to war only reluctantly, as a last-ditch means to preserve the independence that they cherished as a birthright.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

An important new interpretation of the American colonists' 150-year struggle to achieve independence

"What do we mean by the Revolution?" John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson in 1815. "The war? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an effect and consequence of it." As the distinguished historian Thomas P. Slaughter shows in this landmark book, the long process of revolution reached back more than a century before 1776, and it touched on virtually every aspect of the colonies' laws, commerce, social structures, religious sentiments, family ties, and political interests. And Slaughter's comprehensive work makes clear that the British who chose to go to North America chafed under imperial rule from the start, vigorously disputing many of the colonies' founding charters.
When the British said the Americans were typically "independent," they meant to disparage them as lawless and disloyal. But the Americans insisted on their moral courage and political principles, and regarded their independence as a great virtue, as they regarded their love of freedom and their loyalty to local institutions. Over the years, their struggles to define this independence took many forms, and Slaughter's compelling narrative takes us from New England and Nova Scotia to New York and Pennsylvania, and south to the Carolinas, as colonists resisted unsympathetic royal governors, smuggled to evade British duties on imported goods (tea was only one of many), and, eventually, began to organize for armed uprisings.
Britain, especially after its victories over France in the 1750s, was eager to crush these rebellions, but the Americans' opposition only intensified, as did dark conspiracy theories about their enemies—whether British, Native American, or French.In Independence, Slaughter resets and clarifies the terms in which we may understand this remarkable evolution, showing how and why a critical mass of colonists determined that they could not be both independent and subject to the British Crown. By 1775–76, they had become revolutionaries—going to war only reluctantly, as a last-ditch means to preserve the independence that they cherished as a birthright.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book At Play by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book Wonder Women by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book Sparta by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book Iterating Grace by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book Kneeknock Rise by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book You Belong to Me by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book The Glamour of Strangeness by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book The Novel of the Century by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book One Drop of Blood by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book What to Eat by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book The Next Convergence by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book The Animals: Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book Bad Science by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book The Ghost in Love by Thomas P. Slaughter
Cover of the book The Draw by Thomas P. Slaughter
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy