Arms, Country, and Class: The Philadelphia Militia and the Lower Sort During the American Revolution

ISBN-13: 9780813514727 / Angielski / Miękka / 1989 / 392 str.

Steven Rosswurm

Opis

"Extremely well organized and extensively researched. . . . This excellent, thought-provoking work stressing the determinative role of class conflict in Pennsylvania's internal revolution undoubtedly will cause scholarly debate. . . . An admirable achievement in offering fresh and welcome approaches to a noteworthy aspect of America's revolutionary era."--Pennsylvania History "Writing from an avowedly Marxist perspective, Rosswurm has produced and exceedingly sympathetic study of the contribution of Philadelphia's lower classes to both the political and military aspects of the American Revolution in Pennsylvania. . . . An important contribution to the renewed interest in the role of conflict in the American Revolution, it is strongly recommended."--Choice " This] is the best kind of history from the bottom up in that it seeks to understand the less powerful on their own terms while understanding as well the influence of the larger society in which those people lived. . . . will become a 'must cite' item in the historical literature that covers the late colonial and revolutionary period."--John Alexander, University of Cincinnati Steven Rosswurm examines the role of Philadelphia's "lower sort"--primarily artisans and wage earners--in the making of the American Revolution. He demonstrates that they were central to the Pennsylvania Revolution, the most radical of all state revolutions. Through an exhaustive review of a wide range of sources, Rosswurm explores the "lower sorts'" ascent to power in the militia and the Committee of Privates during 1775 and 1776, showing how they played an important part in establishing the radically democratic Constitution of 1776. While carefully tracking the Philadelphia militia to the battlefield, and looking at who fought and how they fought, Rosswurm shows that the militia continually found themselves forced to weigh patriotism against their vision of equality. Rosswurm's study is a multilayered analysis of a society in revolution, a look at those below within the context of the power of their "betters." We hear the voices of the popular movement as well as the abstract debates about republicanism and the Revolution's meaning. Broad, vivid, and powerful, this book is for those interested in the interaction of class and politics and the interplay between sociology and ideology. Steven Rosswurm is Associate Professor of History at Lake Forest College.