The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America

by Gary B. Nash

Book Overview

In the rows of august marble busts that commemorate the American Revolution, we have lost sight of the true radical spirit of the longest and most disruptive upheaval in our history, argues distinguished American historian Gary B. Nash. In this brilliant reexamination of the swirl of ideology, grievance, outrage, and hope that animated the revolutionary decades, Nash demonstrates that though the Founding Fathers led the charge, the energy to raise...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670034207
• ISBN13: 9780670034208
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Book!

As long as one enjoys history in the slightest sense, they will like this book. Gary B. Nash aims to re-think history in this book, and he does it well. After using this to teach a class, I find that some people are put off by this "people based" approach saying it's too boring. However, for most people this is far from the case. Almost everyone in the class loved it, and the discussion was great!! I'd suggest buying it if you like American history (or just history) OR human rights (and people's stories).

The Universality of the American Revolution

The history of the American Revolution is usually treated, even by professional historians, as an event out of history. It's a platitude, but accurate, to say revolutionary figures like Jefferson, Adams, Paine, and Franklin are treated as philosophers debating abstract principles of government with Olympian detachment. At the same time, it's rare to find any serious treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, and women as revolutionary actors. For this reason, Nash's treatment--with or without alleged historical accuracies and exaggerations--is well worth reading. Nash is fairly unusual for historians of this period insofar as he introduces a broad range of social issues that were raised, but not resolved, by the war: *women's demands for political power; *growing calls for the abolition of slavery; *demands for social accountability for business enterprise; *efforts to preserve social mobility; These are all struggles that gave the American War for Independence its revolutionary nature. During the War, the crown relied heavily on mercenaries from the Continent, militant North American loyalists, and Native Americans. The revolutionary forces relied on recent, impoverished immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and England. The patricians produced a conservative separatist ideology, but the blood and sinews of the Revolution--the spiritual transformation of American society, the fighting, the starving, and the dying--came form the dregs of the American masses. After the war, this cohort of Americans was hurled into the lurch. The Continental Congress and the nascent federal government issued few pensions, and those were paltry. Nash also introduces the important research of Richard White on the revolution among the Native Americans. Yes, the Native peoples of North America along the Middle West and the Tidewater experienced a political revolution. Understandably, the vast majority of Native peoples had no choice but to side with the crown. But the effects on the first nations were dramatic: determined efforts by visionary leaders to forge the disparate Indian bands into a coalition against the advancing settlers, while far from successful, destroy the popular myth of a moribund people facing extinction fatalistically. Gary Nash's history considers far more: it broaches and responds to far more questions of the revolution than other historical accounts I have seen. Its narratives are far more realistic. And Nash, departing from near-universal tradition, does not glorify the winners, something that will no doubt raise a lot of hackles.

Debunks the Notion that the American Revolution Was A Conservative Revolution

Generations of scholars have put forward a hypothesis that the American Revolution was a conservative revolution. On the surface, this hypothesis seems plausible. After all, the Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia created a model of government that was very similar to the English model, a model of branches of government that had checks and balances over one another. Gary Nash's book, the Unknown American Revolution, collects and reveals information about a revolution that was truly radical -- a revolution that I had never seen revealed in any classroom, in spite of being exposed to a fair bit of liberal arts education. Although Nash doesn't make an explicit comparison, the U.S. Constitution of 1787 was quite conservative compared to the Pennsylvania state constitution of 1776, a constitution that called for a broader franchise and government by a unicameral legislature. Elites were snubbed in this state constitution, a constitution that created a government without an executive branch or a upper house of the legislature. Up and down the seaboard, radicals argued for state constitutions such as these, although, in most cases, they had to compromise with conservatives and moneyed interests and produce more moderate governing institutions. Nash paints a fascinating picture of angry farmers and "leather aprons" tearing down sumptuous mansions of abusive governing elites and staging jailbreaks for unjustly imprisoned leaders; Black slaves joining both sides in the conflict in a revolutionary attempt to secure their own freedom and abolish slavery; and itinerant frontier preachers challenging the established church in defense of Christ's Poor. He establishes a continuity of mob violence from the Carolina Regulator Movement to the violent reactions to the Stamp Act, all the way through Shays Rebellion of 1786. Nash's portrayal of Shays Rebellion as a continuation of the disaffection of the poor makes more sense than the traditional portrayal of Shays Rebellion as an aberration demonstrating the weakness of government under the Articles of Confederation. Indeed, Nash's defense of mob violence as something focused and purposeful (as opposed to random and mindless) is bound to generate some controversy. Professor Nash takes up the position that a law that is unjust is no law at all, and that mobs are not unthinking masses. Is mob violence democratic? Can a mob make a reasoned decision on whether a law is just or unjust? Nash seems to think so. A little scary, since this line of reasoning could be used to justify riots, wilfull destruction of property, and lynchings. The genius of Professor Nash's book is his ability to separate the War of Independence from the American Revolution. Separating from Britain is one matter, revolutions are another. How much did American society change in the American Revolution? More than meets the eye, argues Nash. The fledgling United States might have failed to abolish slavery, but the contradict

Evolutionary if not revolutionary...

A number of reviewers have pointed out that the information presented in this book is not new. This is certainly true. However, the author poses a juxtaposition of the information which does create something new and interesting. Should this volume comprise the sole text in your library on the history of the Revolution? Of course not. It does provide useful reminders to look beyond the obvious. The 'glorious cause' was not glorius for all. The ideals of the Revolution were not all realized with the Declaration nor with the Treaty of Paris nor with the ratification of the Constitution. Those ideals do still drive us today to get it right; to make it better; to fix it where we got it wrong. This is a very enjoyable read which should cause you to think a bit about issues which typically receive rather light attention in other histories.

Fascinating View of the Revolution

The American Revolution as it is tought in schools and in the standard histories is a clean and simple thing when compared to the messy politics we see now between the Republicans and Democrats. in this book Mr. Nash points out that it wasn't nearly so simple. There were people with views from one extreme to the other. While we focus on the 'big names' in history, the war was fought by individuals who came to join the Continental Army. We tend to ignore the impact of the slave holding states that forced words into the Declaration of Independence that were to cause a massive war 'four score and seven' years later. Mr. Nash presents, not a revisionists history, but a view more along the lines of 'the inside scoop.' There is little here that is truly new, but it is put together in a very interesting manner that makes the history of the American Revolution more understandable, more lifelike. These were real people struggling to make things happen, some suceeded, some didn't, just like the rest of life.