A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American RepublicOxford University Press, 12. jun. 2003 - 576 strani It was an age of fascinating leaders and difficult choices, of grand ideas eloquently expressed and of epic conflicts bitterly fought. Now comes a brilliant portrait of the American Revolution, one that is compelling in its prose, fascinating in its details, and provocative in its fresh interpretations. In A Leap in the Dark, John Ferling offers a magisterial new history that surges from the first rumblings of colonial protest to the volcanic election of 1800. Ferling's swift-moving narrative teems with fascinating details. We see Benjamin Franklin trying to decide if his loyalty was to Great Britain or to America, and we meet George Washington when he was a shrewd planter-businessman who discovered personal economic advantages to American independence. We encounter those who supported the war against Great Britain in 1776, but opposed independence because it was a "leap in the dark." Following the war, we hear talk in the North of secession from the United States. The author offers a gripping account of the most dramatic events of our history, showing just how closely fought were the struggle for independence, the adoption of the Constitution, and the later battle between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Yet, without slowing the flow of events, he has also produced a landmark study of leadership and ideas. Here is all the erratic brilliance of Hamilton and Jefferson battling to shape the new nation, and here too is the passion and political shrewdness of revolutionaries, such as Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry, and their Loyalist counterparts, Joseph Galloway and Thomas Hutchinson. Here as well are activists who are not so well known today, men like Abraham Yates, who battled for democratic change, and Theodore Sedgwick, who fought to preserve the political and social system of the colonial past. Ferling shows that throughout this period the epic political battles often resembled today's politics and the politicians--the founders--played a political hardball attendant with enmities, selfish motivations, and bitterness. The political stakes, this book demonstrates, were extraordinary: first to secure independence, then to determine the meaning of the American Revolution. John Ferling has shown himself to be an insightful historian of our Revolution, and an unusually skillful writer. A Leap in the Dark is his masterpiece, work that provokes, enlightens, and entertains in full measure. |
Iz vsebine knjige
Zadetki 1–5 od 59
Stran 34
... liberty or give me death.” In reality, he was somewhat less eloquent. A French visitor to Williamsburg, who took notes during the speech, wrote that Shortly after I Came in one of the members stoop up and said he had read that in former ...
... liberty or give me death.” In reality, he was somewhat less eloquent. A French visitor to Williamsburg, who took notes during the speech, wrote that Shortly after I Came in one of the members stoop up and said he had read that in former ...
Stran 37
... Liberty Tree”—near Boston Common. One was that of the earl of Bute, a confidant of the monarch and head of the ministry that first had bruited Britain's new colonial policy. The other effigy was that of Oliver, who was about to reap the ...
... Liberty Tree”—near Boston Common. One was that of the earl of Bute, a confidant of the monarch and head of the ministry that first had bruited Britain's new colonial policy. The other effigy was that of Oliver, who was about to reap the ...
Stran 38
... Liberty,” paraded around the Liberty Tree. Oliver, an observer said, was ridiculed by “all Collours.” The crowd had grown quite large by early afternoon and showed no sign of dispersing. After meeting with his council, Governor Bernard ...
... Liberty,” paraded around the Liberty Tree. Oliver, an observer said, was ridiculed by “all Collours.” The crowd had grown quite large by early afternoon and showed no sign of dispersing. After meeting with his council, Governor Bernard ...
Stran 39
... liberty and property,” set out for Hutchinson's six-pilastered brick mansion just after 9 o'clock. Hutchinson had long since been warned that he too was likely to be victimized, and he had sent his children away, although he stayed ...
... liberty and property,” set out for Hutchinson's six-pilastered brick mansion just after 9 o'clock. Hutchinson had long since been warned that he too was likely to be victimized, and he had sent his children away, although he stayed ...
Stran 40
... Liberty Tree and—after it had first hanged effigies of the pope and the devil— made him formally renounce his post as stamp collector. Collectors elsewhere also resigned when confronted by crowds of protesters, some like the stamp ...
... Liberty Tree and—after it had first hanged effigies of the pope and the devil— made him formally renounce his post as stamp collector. Collectors elsewhere also resigned when confronted by crowds of protesters, some like the stamp ...
Vsebina
1 | |
23 | |
3 17661770 To Crush the Spirit of the Colonies | 53 |
4 17701774 The Cause of Boston Now Is the Cause of America | 87 |
5 17751776 To Die Freemen Rather Than to Live Slaves | 123 |
6 17761777 A Leap Into the Dark | 167 |
7 17781782 This Wilderness of Darkness Dangers | 209 |
8 17831787 The Present Paroxysm of Our Affairs | 247 |
10 17901793 Prosperous at Home Respectable Abroad | 315 |
11 17931796 A Colossus to the Antirepublican Party | 355 |
12 17971799 A Game Where Principles Are the Stake | 405 |
13 17991801 The Gigg Is Up | 451 |
14 1801 An Age of Revolution and Reformation | 477 |
Abbreviations | 489 |
Notes | 493 |
Index | 539 |
Druge izdaje - Prikaži vse
A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic John Ferling Predogled ni na voljo - 2003 |
A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic John E. Ferling Predogled ni na voljo - 2003 |
Pogosti izrazi in povedi
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