British attempts to collect revenue and quarter soldiers on American soil through a series of ill-conceived acts of Parliament in the 1760s and 70s precipitated all manner of protest from the colonialists, who were already used to inadequate representation in local assemblies. The notion of "virtual" representation in Parliament as being sufficient for agreeing to taxation was rejected strongly throughout the colonies.
In this book, the author offers his own interpretation of the importance of the Revolution. It was the source of what he calls "middling democracy". By this phrase, the author means that any person, regardless of social status, wealth or education had the right to pursue his or her own ends, to find value, and to seek his or her own self-defined interests and economic success. The Revolution broke all future branches in structure from Europe. According to the author, we are still living through and developing the insights and consequences of the Revolution.
For me, I like how this book was well written and how easy it is to read and short enough to understand. The most interesting section of the book was the discussion of the French-Indian War or the “Seven Years War” and how it lead Great Britain to place an army on the frontier and to impose certain taxes to pay its cost. The population and movement in North America grew very fast and from these small beginnings and growth, a Revolution grew. The author presents a good summary of the causes of the Revolution, a topic difficult and fascinating in itself. One of these was the economic expansion, thru this started the Industrial revolution, with so many people the foodstuffs couldn’t keep up with the growing population and the there was more importing than exporting going on so backcountry trading centers all over such as Staunton, Virginia, and Salisbury, North Carolina growing tobacco and port cities like Baltimore, Norfolk, and Alexandria grew up almost overnight to handle this much traffic.
Even though the book is very good and simple for any general reader like me, there are a few things not covered as much, such as certain groups like slaves, Indians, and women and it really doesn’t talk how the actual Americans lived in this period. Another thing is the timeline gets confusing on the dates such as the debate over independence and the debate over the Constitution.
The authors writing style was very easy to read and follow, this book is divided into seven chapters, Origins, American Resistance, Revolution, Constitution-making and War, Republicanism, Republican Society, The Federal Constitution. In every chapter the author gives very good facts about each segment covered in the chapter, the book doesn’t keep on talking about certain events for too long it just gives you the most important facts. The book is more like a bibliography of the American Revolution, this period is very complicated and important and this book answers some questions not covered in history books from school or other huge books with hundreds of pages.
(Here goes what type of sources the author uses, primary or secondary)
After reading this book I found out many events and details that were not in the class book, but made me understand more what went on and after the American Revolution. It made me see that it wasn’t just one event but several and how this was the beginning of American democracy.