Synopses & Reviews
In one remarkable quarter-century, thirteen quarrelsome colonies were transformed into a nation. Edmund S. Morgan's classic account of the Revolutionary period shows how the challenge of British taxation started the Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom and eventually led to the Revolution.
Morgan demonstrates that these principles were not abstract doctrines of political theory but grew instead out of the immediate needs and experiences of the colonists. They were held with passionate conviction, and incorporated, finally, into the constitutions of the new American states and of the United States.
Though the basic theme of the book and his assessment of what the Revolution achieved remain the same, Morgan has updated the revised edition of The Birth of the Republic (1977) to include some textual and stylistic changes as well as a substantial revision of the Bibliographic Note.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-192) and index.
About the Author
Edmund S. Morgan (1916-2013) was Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and past president of the Organization of American Historians. His many books include
The Puritan Family: Religion and Domestic Relations in Seventeenth-Century New England; The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles; The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop; American Slavery—American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia; The Challenge of the American Revolution; Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America; and, with Helen M. Morgan,
The Stamp Act Crisis.
Table of Contents
Editor's Foreword to the Third Edition
Editor's Foreword to the Second Edition
Preface to the Third Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Lexington Green
1. The Americans and the Empire
2. Sugar and Stamps, 1764-66
3. Peace without Honor, 1766-68
4. Troops and Tea, 1768-74
5. Equal Rights, 1774-76
6. War and Peace, 1776-83
7. The Independent States
8. The Independent Nation, 1776-81
9. "The Critical Period"
10. The Constitutional Convention
11. Ratification
Appendix: Basic Documents of the Revolution
The Declaration of Independence
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States
The Bill of Rights
Bibliographical Note
Important Dates
Index