![]() New settlements were developing away from the East Coast in an ungovernable backcountry, weakening colonial authority. ![]() He begins his tale by explaining the factors that, in the 15 years running up to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, were aggravating relations between the British and their increasingly suspicious colonists. He is careful to calibrate precisely what 'equality' meant at a time when blacks and women were essentially left out of it. Having won a Pulitzer in 1993 for his book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which demonstrated how society and culture were transformed, Wood is clearly on strong territory when it comes to the real-life effects of the move from monarchical to republican society - on popular religion, the economy, education, the family and the slavery question. ![]() Joyfully for those of us who find it hard to get our historical kicks from ferreting on the battlefields, he devotes few pages to the eight years of actual fighting. Actually, he does rather more than that for a slim summary of a big event there is a great deal of synthesised analysis wound around his narrative. ![]() ![]() Professor Wood rejects any such anachronistic impositions of value as a comment only upon their proponents, and gets on with telling the story. ![]()
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