1775: A Good Year for Revolution - Hardcover

Phillips, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670025127 ISBN 13: 9780670025121

Publisher: Viking Pr, 2012

Synopsis

The contrarian historian and analyst upends the conventional reading of the American Revolution

In 1775, iconoclastic historian and bestselling author Kevin Phillips punctures the myth that 1776 was the watershed year of the American Revolution. He suggests that the great events and confrontations of 1775—Congress’s belligerent economic ultimatums to Britain, New England’s rage militaire, the exodus of British troops and expulsion of royal governors up and down the seaboard, and the new provincial congresses and hundreds of local committees that quickly reconstituted local authority in Patriot hands­—achieved a sweeping Patriot control of territory and local government that Britain was never able to overcome. These each added to the Revolution’s essential momentum so when the British finally attacked in great strength the following year, they could not regain the control they had lost in 1775.

Analyzing 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 insights he has shown in analyzing contemporary politics and economics. The result is a dramatic narrative brimming with original insights.1775 revolutionizes our understanding of America’s origins.

About this title

Review

"In his amassing of mountains of facts from numerous monographs, Phillips has tried to do what most academic historians these days have not been much interested in doing--bring together all the meticulous research that has been going on for decades and turn it into a comprehensive and readable book designed for general readers. Much of what Phillips has written is clear and free of jargon. His assessments of the various military situations, especially those faced by the British, are always realistically based, and his judgments of what was possible and what was not possible for the British to do are always sound."--"The New York Review of Books"

"Enthralling."--"Publishers Weekly" (starred, boxed review)

"Impressively authoritative...[A] deeply researched, meticulously argued, multidimensional history."--"Kirkus" (starred review)

"A solid, well-argued, and informative re-examination of our beginnings as a nation-state."--"Booklist"

"A feisty, fearless, edgy book, blissfully bereft of academic jargon, propelled by the energy of an author with the bit in his teeth. --The New York Times Book Review
In his amassing of mountains of facts from numerous monographs, Phillips has tried to do what most academic historians these days have not been much interested in doing bring together all the meticulous research that has been going on for decades and turn it into a comprehensive and readable book designed for general readers. Much of what Phillips has written is clear and free of jargon. His assessments of the various military situations, especially those faced by the British, are always realistically based, and his judgments of what was possible and what was not possible for the British to do are always sound. --The New York Review of Books
"Enthralling."--Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)
"Impressively authoritative...[A] deeply researched, meticulously argued, multidimensional history."--Kirkus (starred review)
"A solid, well-argued, and informative re-examination of our beginnings as a nation-state."--Booklist"

About the Author

Kevin Phillips has been a political and an economic commentator for four decades. This is his fifteenth book. The predecessor to this book, The Cousins’ Wars, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. He lives in Connecticut.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Pr
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0670025127
• ISBN 13: 9780670025121
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 628