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 80
Stran 36
... told that new taxes would drain away their sparse earnings. What they did need, however, were allies to resist the taxes, and in the Stamp Act episode, as rarely before, the city's laborers, artisans, and many from the commercial elite ...
... told that new taxes would drain away their sparse earnings. What they did need, however, were allies to resist the taxes, and in the Stamp Act episode, as rarely before, the city's laborers, artisans, and many from the commercial elite ...
Stran 37
... told London on August 6, and he pleaded with the ministry “not to be in great haste with more of the same sort” of legislation. One week later, Boston exploded.29 The city awakened on August 14 to discover effigies hung from an elm ...
... told London on August 6, and he pleaded with the ministry “not to be in great haste with more of the same sort” of legislation. One week later, Boston exploded.29 The city awakened on August 14 to discover effigies hung from an elm ...
Stran 38
... told that most of the city's militiamen were members of the mob. Thus unrestrained, the crowd pelted the house with stones, breaking several windows, then muscled its way into the residence and looted Oliver's wine cellar. Near midnight ...
... told that most of the city's militiamen were members of the mob. Thus unrestrained, the crowd pelted the house with stones, breaking several windows, then muscled its way into the residence and looted Oliver's wine cellar. Near midnight ...
Stran 39
... told ”31 London, as “I could expect no aid from the Government. Another crowd did gather that evening and marched on the lieutenant governor's residence, but it dispersed when assurances were given that Hutchinson had played no role in ...
... told ”31 London, as “I could expect no aid from the Government. Another crowd did gather that evening and marched on the lieutenant governor's residence, but it dispersed when assurances were given that Hutchinson had played no role in ...
Stran 41
... told Governor Thomas Boone that his actions threatened “to destroy the most essential and inviolable rights of the people.” At the Stamp Act Congress he fought to base America's opposition to parliamentary taxation “on those natural and ...
... told Governor Thomas Boone that his actions threatened “to destroy the most essential and inviolable rights of the people.” At the Stamp Act Congress he fought to base America's opposition to parliamentary taxation “on those natural and ...
Vsebina
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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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