The Challenge Of The American Revolution - Softcover

Edmund, Morgan S

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393008762 ISBN 13: 9780393008760

Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1978

Synopsis

The Revolution is fertile ground for the historian's craft, as these essays attest. Edmund S. Morgan discovers in American protests against British taxation an affirmation of rights that the colonists adhered to with surprising consistency, and that guided them ultimately to independence. Then, after a general reassessment of the importance of the Revolution, he moves to a study of it as an intellectual movement, which challenged the best minds of the period to transform their political world. Next, in studying the ethical basis of the Revolution, Morgan traces the shaping of national consciousness by puritanical attitudes toward work and leisure. This leads him to an exploration of the paradoxical relationship between slavery and freedom, and the role their relationship played in the Revolution. Finally, thinking about the Revolution on its anniversary, Morgan looks once again at the Founding Fathers and the innovative daring, admiring most their ability to reject what had hitherto been taken for granted.

About this title

About the Author:

Edmund S. Morgan (1916-2013) was the Sterling Professor Emeritus at Yale University and the recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the Pulitzer Prize, and the American Academy's Gold Medal. The author of The Genuine Article; American Slavery, American Freedom; Benjamin Franklin; and American Heroes, among many others.

Synopsis:

Essays written over the past thirty years assess the American Revolution's abstract and specifically contemporary importance and study factors and events seen as contributing directly to American independence and a national consciousness.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0393008762
• ISBN 13: 9780393008760
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240