An Empire On The Edge
How Britain Came To Fight America
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE 2015 GEORGE WASHINGTON PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE 2015 PULTIZER PRIZE IN HISTORY
In this powerful narrative, Nick Bunker tells the story of the last three years of mutual embitterment that preceded the outbreak of America’s war for independence in 1775. It was a tragedy of errors, in which both sides shared responsibility for a conflict that cost the lives of at least twenty thousand Britons and a still larger number of Americans.
Drawing on careful study of primary sources from Britain and the United States, An Empire on the Edge sheds new light on the Tea Party’s origins and on the roles of such familiar characters as Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Thomas Hutchinson. At the heart of the book lies the Boston Tea Party, an event that arose from fundamental flaws in the way the British managed their affairs.
With lawyers in London calling the Tea Party treason, and with hawks in Parliament crying out for revenge, the British opted for punitive reprisals without foreseeing the resistance they would arouse. For their part, the Americans underestimated Britain’s determination not to give way. By the late summer of 1774, the descent into war had become irreversible.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Covering the three years leading up to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, journalist Bunker (Making Haste from Babylon) wisely jettisons a hero/villain dichotomy in favor of a nuanced global analysis of Britain's failure to hold onto its American colonies. Bunker opens his riveting narrative with an account of the East India Company's maneuvers to secure tea for the thirsty British market. In 1771, the company miscalculated demand and ended up with a crippling amount of unsold stock that, with the help of the British government, it intended to unload on the 13 colonies. By 1772, the colonists, accustomed to running their own economies and local governments, pushed back at what they viewed as unwarranted intrusions into their affairs. This serious difference of opinion over the nature of the colonial relationship became crystal clear when a group of American raiders attacked a British customs schooner, the Gasp e, off the coast of Rhode Island. Relations with Britain deteriorated, culminating with the dumping of the East India Company's tea in the Boston harbor. This was a major property crime and another direct challenge to Parliament's authority. With a sharp eye for economic realities, Bunker persuasively demonstrates why the American Revolution had to happen. Illus.