The American Revolution

A revised version of an American history classic, exploring the people and culture of the Revolutionary era that birthed the nation.

When The American Revolution was first published in 1985, it was praised as the first synthesis of the Revolutionary War to use the new social history. Bancroft Prize-winning professor of history Edward Countryman offered a balanced view of how the Revolution was made by a variety of groups—ordinary farmers as well as lawyers, women as well as men, blacks as well as whites—who transformed the character of American life and culture.

In this revised edition, Countryman stresses the painful destruction of British identity and the construction of a new American one. He expands his geographical scope of the Revolution to include areas west of the Alleghenies, Europe, and Africa, and he draws fresh links between the politics and culture of the independence period and the creation of a new and dynamic capitalist economy. This innovative interpretation of the American Revolution creates an even richer, more comprehensive portrait of a critical period in America's history.

"Fine, concise history . . . Better than any comparable treatment." —New York Times–bestselling author Sean Wilentz

"As a synthesis of modern scholarship on the Revolution, this important book has no rival." —Pauline Maier, author of American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence