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 78
Stran 2
... took little imagination for Dinwiddie to guess that the French soldiers had been sent to take control of the head of the Ohio River, Anglo-America's access route to the Ohio Country. He wanted guidance from London about how to respond ...
... took little imagination for Dinwiddie to guess that the French soldiers had been sent to take control of the head of the Ohio River, Anglo-America's access route to the Ohio Country. He wanted guidance from London about how to respond ...
Stran 16
... assistance of New York.” It soon was New York's turn to fume. When the French in 1693 took advantage of New York's weakness and struck through the Champlain Valley, destroying frontier settlements, New 16 n a leap in the dark.
... assistance of New York.” It soon was New York's turn to fume. When the French in 1693 took advantage of New York's weakness and struck through the Champlain Valley, destroying frontier settlements, New 16 n a leap in the dark.
Stran 18
... took place over the colonists' freedom of trade with other imperial powers. Even the utilization of the Mississippi River, far, far to the west, crept into the discussion. Congress made additional changes, particularly with regard to ...
... took place over the colonists' freedom of trade with other imperial powers. Even the utilization of the Mississippi River, far, far to the west, crept into the discussion. Congress made additional changes, particularly with regard to ...
Stran 21
... took on the fight against the French on the continent. This enabled him to send 20,000 British regulars across the Atlantic, more than ten times the number that Braddock had brought, to fight in the American theater. He asked the ...
... took on the fight against the French on the continent. This enabled him to send 20,000 British regulars across the Atlantic, more than ten times the number that Braddock had brought, to fight in the American theater. He asked the ...
Stran 33
... took up the law, studying for only six weeks before he opened his practice. Henry succeeded at once in his new career. He understood intuitively how to awe rustic jurors. Combining silver-tongued oratory with the dramatic flair of an ...
... took up the law, studying for only six weeks before he opened his practice. Henry succeeded at once in his new career. He understood intuitively how to awe rustic jurors. Combining silver-tongued oratory with the dramatic flair of an ...
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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