Whose American Revolution was it? : historians interpret the founding / Alfred F. Young and Gregory H. Nobles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Young, Alfred F., 1925-2012.

Contributor:

Nobles, Gregory H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Historiography.

United States.

History.

Historiography.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Influence.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Social aspects.

Social aspects.

Physical Description:

vi, 287 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2011]

Summary:

The Meaning of the American Revolution has always been a much-contested question, as the standard, easily digested narrative puts the Founding Fathers at the head of a unified movement, failing to acknowledge the deep divisions in Revolutionary-era society and the many different historical interpretations that have followed. Whose American Revolution Was It? speaks both to the ways diverse groups of Americans who lived through the Revolution might have answered that question and to the numerous ways historians have interpreted the Revolution through the decades.

The only volume to offer an accessible and sweeping discussion of the period's historiography and its historians, Whose American Revolution Was It? is an essential reference for anyone. studying early American history.

A historian of the American Revolution for over fifty years, Alfred F. Young is Emeritus Professor of History at Northern Illinois University. Book jacket.

Contents:

American Historians Confront "The Transforming Hand of Revolution" / Alfred F. Young Young, Alfred F. 13

Introduction 13

I J. Franklin Jameson 16

1 The Jameson Thesis: The Text 16

2 The Jameson Thesis: The Context 19

3 Jameson's Achievement 19

II Progressives and Counter-Progressives 33

4 The Progressive Historians 33

5 The Counter-Progressives: Part 1 47

6 Against the Grain

7 The Counter-Progressives: Part 2 65

III New Left, New Social History 75

8 The New Left 75

9 The New Social History 89

10 Explorations: New Left, New Social, New Progressive 96

IV Synthesis 101

11 The Transformation of Early American History 101

12 Toward a New Synthesis? 114

Historians Extend the Reach of the American Revolution / Gregory H. Nobles Nobles, Gregory H. 135

Introduction 135

I Refocusing on the Founders 137

1 Twenty-first-Century "Founders Chic" 137

2 The Elite Critique of Social History 141

II Redefining Freedom in the Revolution 144

3 The Contradiction of Slavery 144

4 The Revolution of the Enslaved 146

5 Emancipation's Fate in the Revolutionary Era 152

6 The Founders' Failures on Slavery 156

III Facing the Revolution from Indian Country 172

7 Native American Perspectives on Euro-American Struggles 172

8 Eighteenth-Century American Empires 181

IV Reconsidering Class in the American Revolution 192

9 The Roots and Resurgence of Class Analysis 192

10 The Urban Context of Class 196

11 Class in the Countryside 208

V Writing Women into the Revolution 224

12 Energy and Innovation since 1980 224

13 New Approaches to Elite Women's Lives 230

14 The Historical Recovery of Ordinary Women's Lives 235

15 Women in the Post-Revolutionary Public Sphere 246.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780814797105

0814797105

9780814797112

0814797113

9780814797433

0814797431

OCLC:

713567530