The American Revolution: 1763-1783

"The American Revolution: 1763-1783" covers the time frame from the end of the French and Indian Wars to signing of the peace treaty between the British and Americans. The starting point is important because the taxes the Colonists found so burdensome, especially without representation, were primarily designed to have the colonies pay for their own defense. This fifth volume in "The Drama of American History" series aims to give students the "central core" of this period rather than getting bogged down in an overload of information. In other words, authors Christopher and James Lincoln Collier are interested in providing the pageant of American history in "bold strokes." Consequently, this particular period is covered in six chapters: (1) A Revolution in the Hearts and Minds of Americans begins with the provocative question of whether the revolution was inevitable. The Colliers argue that the great distance between London and the Colonies created an unavoidable conflict between the fact British looked at the Americans as colonists rather than as British citizens and the necessity of the Americans exercising a large degree of autonomy with regards to government because messages back and forth across the Atlantic took months. Given that dynamic, the relationship could not continue forever; (2) The Stamp Act Crisis looks at the first major crisis between the Crown and the Colonies, establishing the quandary faced by the British Parliament, which could neither enforce the Stamp Act nor allow policy to be dictated by what they considered to be a mob. This chapter highlights the potent political rhetoric of James Otis, Patrick Henry, and John Adams in the developing movement towards independence; (3) Taxes and Teas looks at how American attitudes towards Britain continued to evolve in the wake of the Boston Massacre, so that by 1770 any hope of reconciliation between the Crown and the New England colonies was ended and many Americans were now convinced the British Parliament was no longer on their side. The Boston Tea Party in 1773 becomes the spark that ends up triggering the revolution. The last half of the volume is devoted to the outbreak of actual hostilities: (4) Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill not only relates the details of these early battles in the war for independence, but more importantly shows how they provided evidence that the Colonists could successfully fight the British; (5) The Declaration of Independence actually spends only a few paragraphs discussion the document as an example of practical politics rather than political philosophy. Most of the chapter talks about the lessons George Washington learned from the British evacuation of Boston and the American defeat on Long Island; and (6) The War for American Independence looks at the American Revolution with an emphasis on the chain of events that would lead to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, looking at those events that improved American morale, thwarted Briti