The debate on the American Revolution

Gwenda Morgan

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781526183989
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

This book is the first in-depth study of the way in which historians have dealt with the coming of the American Revolution and the formation of the US Constitution. The approach is thematic, examining how historians in different periods interpreted these events and their causes and, more contentiously, their meaning. Making accessible to modern readers the work of often-neglected early historians, this book examines how the emergence of history as a professional discipline led to new and competing versions of the history of the Revolution. It spans the entire period from the first generation of writers, whose ideas about history were shaped by the Enlightenment, to those of the twenty-first century who drew on the rich legacy provided by black studies, gender and women's studies, cultural studies and ethnohistory. This book will be an invaluable resource for all students and scholars of the American Revolution.

Table of contents

• Front matter
• Dedication
• Contents
• General Editor's Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 pioneers
• 2 ‘Noble ideals and ignoble interests’
• 3 Present at the creation: the making of the Federal Constitution
• 4 Ideology, slavery and original intent
• 5 African Americans: resistance and revolution
• 6 ‘A new era in female history’
• 7 The Indians, the west and the Revolution
• Conclusion
• Further Reading
• Index