The Creation of America
Through Revolution to Empire
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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- Paperback£29.99(9780521664813)
This alternative history of the American Revolution, first published in 2000, shows the colonists as empire-building conquerors rather than democratic revolutionaries.
This alternative history of the American Revolution, first published in 2000, portrays the colonists as conquerors. The revolution was an attempt to create not a democracy but an empire independent of Britain. To support his claims, the author includes information on the involuntary participation of Indians and blacks in addition to the usual players.In the standard presentation of the American Revolution, a ragtag assortment of revolutionaries, inspired by ideals of liberty and justice, throw off the yoke of the British empire and bring democracy to the New World. In place of this fairy tale, Francis Jennings presents a realistic alternative: a privileged elite, dreaming of empire, clone their own empire from the British. This book, first published in 2000, shows that the colonists intended from the first to conquer American Indians. Though subordinate to the British crown, the colonists ruled over beaten native peoples. Some colonists bought Africans as slaves and rigidly ruled over them, and the colonists invented racial gradation to justify conquests and oppression. Jennings reveals as war propaganda the revolutionary rhetoric about liberty and virtue. Including the whole population in this meticulously documented history, Jennings provides an eloquent explanation for a host of anomalies, ambiguities, and iniquities that have followed in the American Revolution's wake.
"This time Jennings takes on the entire British imperial establishment both at the Court of St. James and in the Crown's mini-empires in North America. In familiar style he skewers many of the notables of American popular history on his sword of justice, exposing a network of self-interest, hypocrisy, and skulduggery under the surface of revolutionary rhetoric." Anthony F. C. Wallace, University of Pennsylvania
"This is vintage Jennings. It rests on enormous learning, a large historical vision, a strong moral sense, and absolute fearlessness about saying what the author thinks is right. Agree or disagree, it compels attention." Edward Countryman, Southern Methodist University
"Jenning's account...succeeds through a fair and honest reevaluation that not only sheds light on commonly neglected areas, but also provokes thought about uncomfortable aspects of our heritage. An outstanding supplement to the many conventional histories of the American Revolution, Jenning's history offers both an objective account of the conflict and challenging insights about historical distortion." Kirkus Reviews, New York
"Jennings presents his provocative views in a readable style that expands the substance of his argument." Mark Knoblauch, 8/00 Booklist
"If you look at life with a cunical point of view...you should really like Francis Jennings' book. Jennings does such a good job of presenting the evidence that he undermines his own position. One can legitimately look at the glass as being half-full." ACE Weekly
"Throughout, Jennings looks especially at the ways in which ideas about race helped the colonists justify certain kinds of conquest. And although he does not say much that has not been argued dozens of times before, his synthesis is provocative, useful and clearly stated." Publishers Weekly
"In this sweeping revisionist account of the American Revolution, Francis Jennings dispenses with the shibboleths that have long formed the mythology surrounding the nation's birth...Jenning's self-conscious attempt to forego traditional interpretations, and their sources, moves beyond iconoclasm for its own sake, and instead provides a take on the origins of the American empire that gives balance to "mainstream" perspectives." Virgina Quarterly Review vol 77, No.3
"a remarkable set of very engaging stories...Founding Brothers is a wonderful book, one of the best collections of essays on the Founders ever written." N.Y. Review of Books March 01
ISBN: 9780521662550
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 24mm
Weight: 690g
354 pages