Far from orderly, the violent birth pangs of the United States shook the continent and the Atlantic world for the better part of half a century. The revolutions comprised international wars of empire (between several European powers) continental wars of conquest (between settlers and Native Americans) domestic civil wars (between separatists and Loyalists) class warfare and slave uprisings and ideological dischord. It was about land, frontiers, slavery, empire, citizenship, political representation, and union. The groundswell that ultimately erupted in the American Revolutions-plural-was about much more than taxation and representation in Parliament. In truth, it was a messy, rowdy, confusing, and multi-dimensional series of conflicts that encapsulated several different struggles at once. The American Revolution is often primarily understood as an honorable war of independence, whereby thirteen break-away colonies on the North American mainland declared their independence from the British Crown and founded a peaceful and democratic new nation based on the notion that “all men are created equal.” By choosing this seminar, students also choose Algemene Geschiedenis as their BA graduation specialisation.
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.History students should have successfully completed their propaedeutic exam and both second-year BA-seminars, one of which in Algemene Geschiedenis. Assuming the mantle of “We the People,” the advocates of national power ratified the new frame of government. The discord smoldering within the fragile new nation called forth a movement to concentrate power through a Federal Constitution.
The war exploded in set battles like Saratoga and Yorktown and spread through continuing frontier violence. When war erupted, Patriot crowds harassed Loyalists and nonpartisans into compliance with their cause. Emerging from the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, the revolution pivoted on western expansion as well as seaboard resistance to British taxes. The American Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain’s colonies, fueled by local conditions and resistant to control. Alan Taylor, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, gives us a different creation story in this magisterial history. The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the nation its democratic framework. Taylor conveys this sprawling continental history with economy, clarity, and vividness.”-Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal History Forum: American Revolutions with Alan Taylor
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