Republic and Empire
Crisis, Revolution, and America’s Early Independence
Trevor Burnard author Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Yale University Press
Publishing:16th Sep '25
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 16th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A fresh look at the American Revolution as a major global event
At the time of the American Revolution (1765–83), the British Empire had colonies in India, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Canada, Ireland, and Gibraltar. The thirteen rebellious American colonies accounted for half of the total number of provinces in the British world in 1776. What of the loyal half? Why did some of Britain’s subjects feel so aggrieved that they wanted to establish a new system of government, while others did not rebel? In this authoritative history, Trevor Burnard and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy show that understanding the long-term causes of the American Revolution requires a global view.
As much as it was an event in the history of the United States, the American Revolution was an imperial event produced by the upheavals of managing a far-flung set of imperial possessions during a turbulent period of reform. By looking beyond the familiar borders of the Revolution and considering colonies that did not rebel—Quebec, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, India, the British Caribbean, Senegal, and Ireland—Burnard and O’Shaughnessy go beyond the republican, liberal, and democratic aspects of the emerging American nation, providing a broader history that transcends what we think we know about the Revolution.
“In this impressive distillation of a wide range of imperial scholarship, the authors present a compelling case for recognizing both the roots and the course of the American Revolution as profoundly influenced by events in the wider British Empire following its expansion in and immediately after the Seven Years’ War.”—Stephen Conway, University College London
“The American Revolution was at once a civil war, a war of colonial liberation, and an imperial crisis. Viewing the conflict through empire’s eyes, O’Shaughnessy and Burnard reveal hidden connections and overlooked legacies that shaped the world of 1776 and continue to ramify around the globe.”—Jane Kamensky, Monticello
“Timely, critically important contribution to our understanding of the American nation’s origins in a constitutional crisis and civil war that led of half of Britain’s American colonies to declare independence. Balancing a welcome emphasis on the uncertain progress of the war with convincing accounts of why so many other colonies remained loyal, Burnard and O’Shaughnessy illuminate the contingent contexts that shaped individual and collective decisions in a revolutionary age.”—Peter S. Onuf, University of Virginia
“A masterful re-appraisal of the American Revolution by two preeminent historians. Andrew O'Shaughnessy and the late Trevor Burnard brilliantly capture the duality at the heart of America's founding: 1776 was both the beginning of a protracted imperial civil war and the birth of a democratic republic.”—Christa Dierksheide, author of Beyond Jefferson: The Hemingses, the Randolphs, and the Making of Nineteenth Century America
ISBN: 9780300280180
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
320 pages