America Compared to History’s Great Empires
Introduction In this interview: “Americans invariably described their new polity, not just as a republic, but also as an empire… They used the word empire over and over and over again. Watch this segment in the video below (00:10:01) America was founded as a republic. So why did early Americans repeatedly describe it as an […]
Rethinking King George III: the American Revolution From the British Perspective
Introduction In this interview: “I think he’s having a real crisis of faith at that point, because we know that he will actually draft a letter of abdication, a letter of resignation to basically quit the royal family and go back to the German states where he was from.” Watch this section in the video […]
The Boston Massacre: A Permanent Rupture in the Imperial Family
Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part V The Boston Massacre can be understood as a kind of “family history”—and not just metaphorically. It was lived, quite literally, in the homes, streets, and relationships of Boston itself. When the Army Brought Its Families When British regiments arrived in 1768, they didn’t come alone. Alongside roughly 2,000 […]
Who Refused Britain’s Call for Troops in the American Revolution
Unlike the French, the Habsburgs and the Russians, the British Empire was predominantly a naval power. This was both its great strength and a persistent weakness. It was a strength because, well into early 20th century, no rival could match Britain’s command of the seas. Naval dominance meant control over global shipping lanes—the lifeblood of […]
How Britain’s Imperial “Modernization” Shaped the American Revolution
Introduction In this interview: “I think it was a revolution, but only a revolution if one realizes that it’s part of… it formed part of an imperial civil war in which the American aspect of it was the most successful.” Watch this section in the video below (00:14:34). What we often miss about the American […]
Boston Massacre Reconsidered: Was It A Massacre?
Introduction In this interview: “But really, what I came to realize is that the, you know, the things that we can know, are not necessarily the things that the parties at the time cared about hiding.” Watch this section in the video below (00:25:24). Was the Boston Massacre inevitable? For its time, was it truly […]
