CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The literature of the American Revolution is contradictory and complex. This anthology of important, classic articles will help guide serious students through the labyrinth. Most of the famous writers on the subject are represented, and there are short, introductory paragraphs describing their contributions. But the most valuable, and the only really original, part of the volume is the editor's initial chapter on the literature of the Revolution. He sorts out the great researchers into six historical categories. First came the contemporary writers such as William Gordon and David Ramsay. There followed the Nationalists (Bancroft), the Imperialists (Osgood, Beer, Andrews) and the Progressives (Beard, Robinson, Becker). Modern times have seen the development of the neo-Whigs (Boorstin, Morgan) and the British conservatives (Sir Lewis Namier). The approach throughout is relentlessly academic and there is no attempt at popularization. This is for larger public and university libraries, but not the average reader.