Description
Volume I offers an introduction to the Enlightenment, which served as the shared background for virtually all revolutionary turmoil, and the American Revolution, which inaugurated the Age of Revolutions. Beginning with a thorough introduction, the volume covers international rivalry, the importance of slavery, and the reformist mind-set that prevailed on the eve of the revolutionary era. It addresses the traditional argument on whether the Enlightenment truly caused revolutions, concluding that the reverse is more apt: revolutions helped create the Enlightenment as a body of thought. The volume continues with a regional and thematic assessment of the American Revolution, revealing how numerous groups in British America – including Black and indigenous people – pursued their own agendas and faced interests at odds with the principles of the revolution.
Table of Contents
Introduction Wim Klooster; Part I. Enlightenment and culture: 1. Enlightenment and the American Caroline Winterer; 2. Enlightenment and the French Revolution Johnson Kent Wright; 3. Enlightenment and the Ibero-American Revolutions Brian Hamnett; 4. Cultural practices and revolutions, ca. 1760–1825 Nathan Perl-Rosenthal; Part II. The British Colonies: 5. The revolution in British America: General overview Mark Peterson; 6. The myth of “salutary neglect”: Empire and revolution in the long eighteenth century Holly Brewer; 7. The British Atlantic on the eve of American independence Patrick Griffin; 8. Cities and citizenship in revolution Jessica Choppin Roney; 9. The other British colonies Trevor Burnard; 10. The participation of France and Spain Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia; 11. Britain, Ireland, and the American Revolution ca. 1763–1785 Stephen Conway; 12. A contest of wills: The spectrum and experience of political violence in the American Revolution Wayne E. Lee; 13. Recovering loyalism: Opposition to the American Revolution as a good idea Liam Riordan; 14. White women and the American Revolution Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch; 15. Blacks in the British colonies James Sidbury; 16. Life, land, and liberty: The Native Americans' revolution Colin Calloway; 17. Shaping the constitution Max Edling; 18. Reform and rebellion in Spanish America at the time of the American Revolution Anthony McFarlane; 19. International warfare and the non-British Caribbean Wim Klooster; 20. Interpreting a symbol of progress and regression: European views of America's revolution and early republic, 1780–1790 Lloyd Kramer.
