1775: A Good Year for Revolution

9781469203157: 1775: A Good Year for Revolution
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

What if the year we have long commemorated as America’s defining moment was in fact misleading? What if the real events that signaled the historic shift from colony to country took place earlier, and that the true story of our nation’s emergence reveals a more complicated—and divisive—birth process?

In this major new work, iconoclastic historian and political chronicler Kevin Phillips upends the conventional reading of the American Revolution by puncturing the myth that 1776 was the struggle’s watershed year. Mythology and omission have elevated 1776, but the most important year, rarely recognized, was 1775: the critical launching point of the war and Britain’s imperial outrage and counterattack and the year during which America’s commitment to revolution took bloody and irreversible shape.

Phillips focuses on the great battlefields and events of 1775—Congress’s warlike economic ultimatums to king and parliament, New England’s rage militaire, the panicked concentration of British troops in militant but untenable Boston, the stunning expulsion of royal governors up and down the seaboard, and the new provincial congresses and many hundreds of local committees that quickly reconstituted local authority in Patriot hands. These onrushing events delivered a sweeping control of territory and local government to the Patriots, one that Britain was never able to overcome. 1775 was the year in which Patriots captured British forts and fought battles from the Canadian frontier to the Carolinas, obtained the needed gunpowder in machinations that reached from the Baltic to West Africa and the Caribbean, and orchestrated the critical months of nation building in the backrooms of a secrecy-shrouded Congress. As Phillips writes, “The political realignment achieved amid revolution was unique—no other has come with simultaneous ballots and bullets.”

Surveying the political climate, economic structures, and military preparations, as well as the roles of ethnicity, religion, and class, Phillips tackles the eighteenth century with the same skill and perception he has shown in analyzing contemporary politics and economics. He mines rich material as he surveys different regions and different colonies and probes how the varying agendas and expectations at the grassroots level had a huge effect on how the country shaped itself. He details often overlooked facts about the global munitions trade; about the roles of Indians, slaves, and mercenaries; and about the ideological and religious factors that played into the revolutionary fervor.

The result is a dramatic account brimming with original insights about the country we eventually became. Kevin Phillips’s 1775 revolutionizes our understanding of America’s origins.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Kevin Phillips has been a political and an economic commentator for four decades. This is his fifteenth book, the last four of which have been New York Times bestsellers. The Cousins’ Wars was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history in 2000. He lives in Connecticut.
From Booklist:
The year 1776 is often described as the year of this country’s birth. That is, of course, technically true. But Phillips, the acclaimed political analyst and historian, convincingly illustrates that it was in 1775 that the critical trends and events unfolded, so that our declared independence was a confirmation of facts already established on the ground: the lower houses of colonial legislatures had aggressively gained control, often driving out royal governors; the rhetoric of the Second Continental Congress became strident, even bellicose; and increasingly, that congress assumed the powers of a government. On a local level, various Patriot Committees enforced boycotts of British-made goods and made the lives of those deemed Tories very uncomfortable. Vast stretches of the Atlantic seaboard were “no go” areas for British troops. Independence was probably in the thoughts, if not on the lips, of many Americans by the end of the year. Phillips writes in a methodical and cooly dispassionate style, so those expecting a tribute to the “glorious cause” should look elsewhere. But he does provide a solid, well-argued, and informative re-examination of our beginnings as a nation-state. --Jay Freeman

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherBrilliance Audio
  • Publication date2012
  • ISBN 10 1469203154
  • ISBN 13 9781469203157
  • BindingMP3 CD
  • Rating
Buy Used
Condition: Good
Learn more about this copy

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780143123996: 1775: A Good Year for Revolution

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780143123996
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2013
Softcover

  • 9780670025121: 1775: A Good Year for Revolution

    Viking, 2012
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Phillips, Kevin
Published by Brilliance Audio (2012)
ISBN 10: 1469203154 ISBN 13: 9781469203157
Used Quantity: 1
Seller:
Books From California
(Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description MP3 CD. Condition: Good. Seller Inventory # mon0002932398

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
US$ 8.16
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Phillips, Kevin
Published by Brilliance Audio (2012)
ISBN 10: 1469203154 ISBN 13: 9781469203157
Used Quantity: 1
Seller:
Irish Booksellers
(Portland, ME, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 10-1469203154-G

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
US$ 15.97
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds