American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750–1804 by Alan Taylor (review)

Alan Taylor, distinguished historian of colonial North America, the American Revolution, and the Early Republic, whose books have won the Bancroft Prize, two Pulitzer Prizes, and best book prizes from the AHA, OAH, and SHEAR, has now given us American Revolutions. Members of the PHA will find Taylor's analysis of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic region intelligent and balanced, albeit spotty (as one might expect from a book that provides a "continental" perspective). More broadly, Taylor places Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic region within the larger contexts of the eighteenth century, North America, and the empires of Britain, France, and Spain. This wide-ranging synthesis draws upon a vast number of secondary sources (both recent and time-honored), mixes in plenty of primary sources, and explains cogently and engagingly how the United States attained its independence and struggled during its initial decades. Any PHA member—public historians, researchers, writers, teachers, and students—will gain much from reading this book.

Taylor uses the plural "Revolutions" in his title because his book "emphasizes the multiple and clashing visions of revolution pursued by the diverse American peoples of the continent," in contrast with other books that "suggest a singular purpose and vision to the conflict and its legacy" (8). He claims that his approach "breaks with an older view of colonial America as limited to the Atlantic coast and almost entirely British in culture" (7) and differs from interpretations that see the American Revolution as "good, orderly, restrained, and successful when contrasted against the excesses of the French and Russian revolutions" (3). It also takes issue with popular works that depict "a united and heroic American people [who] rise up against unnatural foreign domination by Britons, cast as snooty villains" (4).

Taylor does not just concentrate, as other works do, on "the national story of the United States, particularly the political development of republican institutions," but effectively, imaginatively, consistently, and convincingly incorporates other issues, peoples, and places. He sharpens his analysis by comparing the mainland American colonies to other British possessions in Canada and the Caribbean. He also shows how those living in the interior regions, from the watersheds of the Mississippi River to the Ohio and St. Lawrence, shaped the policies of Great Britain, France, Spain, and the United States. He gives Natives, blacks, women, and the lower classes of white men appropriate and sustained attention, and in the process highlights the hypocrisy of revolutionary elites who professed equal rights but denied them to many. This picture—of a divided American society, of continuous and widespread violence, and of fierce disagreements over policies—does not break new interpretive ground. Indeed, Taylor has built his analysis upon an impressive array of current scholarly works that have made these points. However, he has accomplished a great deal by melding these interpretations into a clear and coherent answer to the key questions we have about the American Revolution.

For example, what caused the Revolution? Taylor clearly addresses the usual factors, such as the colonies' multistranded ties to Britain, the necessities that emerged from the Seven Years' War, and the colonists' fears of losing their property (to taxes) and therefore their independence. He goes further and enriches our understanding of the Revolution's origins in at least two ways. First, he connects the situation on the frontier with developments on the Eastern seaboard. Natives, who fought colonists for control over their land, shaped the British policy of seeking peace and controlling the expansion of settlement; those policies angered settlers and speculators alike. With its inability to collect revenue because of protests against the Stamp Act and boycotts connected to the Townshend Duties, the British government could not maintain good relations with Natives (insufficient gifts and presents) or many of its forts (insufficient numbers of soldiers), and therefore could not control the West. Given this imperial impotence, Americans scoffed at British officials, did what they wanted, pushed onto Native...