The American Revolution: Explorations in the History of American Radicalism

"The most important book on the Revolution yet produced by the historians of the New Left.... It would be impossible to do justice to the range of interpretive insights offered in this book."—New York Review of Books

"Extraordinary and challenging."—American Historical Review

The eleven original essays presented here serve to enlarge the canvas upon which American history is to be portrayed so that it will allow—or more deliberately, give more prominence to—those groups at the bottom of colonial society to gain more equitable visibility. The effect is a striking view of the Revolution that provides not only a much-needed perspective on the role of minority groups in an era of social upheaval but also presents a panorama of such complexity and vitality that American history itself becomes more meaningful and more exciting than anything we have heretofore imagined.

Foreword: Alfred F. Young

Part 1. Common Folk and Gentle Folk

Social Change and the Growth of Prerevolutionary Urban Radicalism: Gary B. Nash

"Out of the Bounds of the Law": Northern Land Rioters in the Eighteenth Century: Edward Countryman

The North Carolina Regulation, 1766–1776: A Class Conflict: Marvin L. Michael Kay

Preachers and Patriots: Popular Culture and the Revolution in Virginia: Rhys Isaac

Part 2. Patriots and Radicals

"Ideology" and an Economic Interpretation of the Revolution: Joseph Ernst

Tom Paine's Republic: Radical Ideology and Social Change: Eric Foner

Boston Leaders and Boston Crowds, 1765–1776: Dirk Hoerder

The "Disaffected" in the Revolutionary South: Ronald Hoffman

Part 3. Outsiders

The Indians' Revolution: Francis Jennings

The Revolution in Black Life: Ira Berlin

The Illusion of Change: Women and the American Revolution: Joan Hoff Wilson

Afterword: Alfred F. Young

Index