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Library of America #265
The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate: Vol. 1, 1764–1772
In 1763 Great Britain possessed the largest and most powerful empire since the fall of Rome, and its colonists in North America were justifiably proud of their vital place within it. Just thirteen short years later the empire was in tatters, and the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves the free and independent United States of America. How had popular loyalties changed so quickly? Looking back in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1815, John Adams pointed to the political pamphlets of the era for an answer, famously suggesting that “the Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775 . . . before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington.” From the more than a thousand pamphlets published on both sides of the Atlantic during the period, acclaimed historian Gordon S. Wood has selected thirty-nine of the most influential and emblematic to reveal as never before how this momentous revolution unfolded.
Here, in the first volume of a two-volume set, are nineteen works from the trans-Atlantic debate triggered by Parliament’s imposition of new taxes and regulations designed to reform the empire. What begins as a controversy about the origin and function of colonies—“Cato”, an anonymous English pamphleteer, wonders if they might in the end prove more a curse than a blessing—quickly becomes a deeper dispute about the nature of political liberty itself. As it progresses, Massachusetts lawyer James Otis makes a bold case for the colonists’ natural rights; London bureaucrat Thomas Whately defends the Stamp Act with the novel assertion that Americans are “virtually” represented in Parliament; Benjamin Franklin offers dramatic testimony against the Stamp Act before the House of Commons; John Dickinson calls for collective action in the famous Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, presented here in its entirety; patriot Joseph Warren remembers the Boston massacre in a fiery oration; and the so-called “Boston Pamphlet,” written by Samuel Adams and others, focuses the debate on the crucial question of sovereignty, setting the stage for the final crisis.
Prepared by the nation’s leading historian of the American Revolution, this volume includes an introduction, headnotes, biographical notes about the writers, a chronology charting the rise and fall of the first British empire, a textual essay describing the reception and influence of each work, and detailed explanatory notes. As a special feature, it also presents typographic reproductions of the pamphlets’ original title pages.
Here, in the first volume of a two-volume set, are nineteen works from the trans-Atlantic debate triggered by Parliament’s imposition of new taxes and regulations designed to reform the empire. What begins as a controversy about the origin and function of colonies—“Cato”, an anonymous English pamphleteer, wonders if they might in the end prove more a curse than a blessing—quickly becomes a deeper dispute about the nature of political liberty itself. As it progresses, Massachusetts lawyer James Otis makes a bold case for the colonists’ natural rights; London bureaucrat Thomas Whately defends the Stamp Act with the novel assertion that Americans are “virtually” represented in Parliament; Benjamin Franklin offers dramatic testimony against the Stamp Act before the House of Commons; John Dickinson calls for collective action in the famous Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, presented here in its entirety; patriot Joseph Warren remembers the Boston massacre in a fiery oration; and the so-called “Boston Pamphlet,” written by Samuel Adams and others, focuses the debate on the crucial question of sovereignty, setting the stage for the final crisis.
Prepared by the nation’s leading historian of the American Revolution, this volume includes an introduction, headnotes, biographical notes about the writers, a chronology charting the rise and fall of the first British empire, a textual essay describing the reception and influence of each work, and detailed explanatory notes. As a special feature, it also presents typographic reproductions of the pamphlets’ original title pages.
955 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2015
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131 people want to read
About the author
Gordon S. Wood
57 books530 followersGordon Stewart Wood is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992). His book The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (1969) won the 1970 Bancroft Prize. In 2010, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 1, 2022
The American Revolution Pamphlet Debate -- 1
Prepared by the distinguished historian of the American Revolution Gordon Wood, this new book is the first of a two-volume Library of America box set of source materials on "The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate, 1764 -- 1776". The two volumes cover the increasing disagreements between Great Britain and the American colonies about the nature of their relationship. The ultimate result was the American Revolutionary War and American independence. The two volumes gain a great deal from being read together, and I have reviewed the box set here on Goodeads: "The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate 1764-1776". I thought it would be valuable to review the individual volumes as well. The two volumes include 39 pamphlets written from a variety of perspectives on the deteriorating relationship between Great Britain and America. The first volume, which I am reviewing here, includes 19 pamphlets written between 1764 -- 1772 while the successor volume includes 20 pamphlets written between 1773 -- 1776.
Especially in this first volume, understanding the debate in these pamphlets requires a degree of historical knowledge. The debate began after the British-American success in the Seven Years War with Britain's acquisition of a large colonial empire. The opening pamphlet in this volume, written by "Cato" expresses skepticism about Britain's ability to manage her new far-flung territory. After the war, Britain attempted to tax the colonies to pay for the great expenses of the struggle, and the trouble between the colonies and the mother country began. The colonies objected strongly to Britain's power to tax when the colonies were not and could not be represented in parliament.
In this volume, the pamphlet debate is less focused than in the successor volume and is tied to changing policies. Some supporters of Britain argued that the colonies had "virtual" representation in parliament while supporters of the colonies denied this. Other British writers denied that the colonists' lack of representation made no difference to the power to tax. Then too, some colonists argued that parliament could not tax them but that it could impose duties on products imported from Britain. Other pamphlet writers, both those who supported America and those who supported Britain, found this a distinction without a difference. Matters would come to a head with a discussion of sovereignty -- essentially whether Britain and the United States, with the passage of time and 3000 miles of ocean separating them, constituted one people or instead had become two. The pamphlets in this volume allow the reader to see the progress of the debate through these varied positions. The pamphlets also turn on various enactments of Parliament, including the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act stating that parliament had the right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever" and the Townshend Acts which purported to impose "duties" on imports (most infamously on tea) rather than taxes.
Gordon Wood's ancillary material do a great deal to help the reader through the pamphlet debate. Wood offers a brief introduction to each pamphlet which describes the issues at stake together with an overview introduction to the entire debate. The book also includes a valuable chronology of the course of the First British Empire, biographies of the authors of the pamphlets, and notes on the publication history of the pamphlets and on difficult points in their contents. This material helps clarify what remains dense and heavy but highly rewarding reading.
Many of the pamphlets in this volume have not been reprinted before and will be unfamiliar to all but specialist readers. Broadly speaking, the first eight pamphlets offer a variety of perspectives on the Stamp Act and on other early attempts by Britain to legislate for the colonies. The ninth pamphlet consists of Benjamin Franklin's testimony before an "August Assembly" explaining the nature of the Americans' objections to the Stamp Act. Franklin as always was careful and equivocal. Britain repealed the Stamp Act while insisting on its power to legislate. The tenth pamphlet comments astutely on the incongruity of this position.
The most famous pamphlet in this volume is no. 11, John Dickinson's "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" written in 1768. It is an erudite call for the colonies to unite and to oppose British duties, however styled, which threaten American liberty. It is valuable to have this important series of twelve letters readily accessible to readers in this volume.
Pamphlets 12 -15 offer a variety of perspectives on the Townshend Duties. The controversy escalates in the paired pamphlets of William Knox and Edward Bancroft which focus the issue on sovereignty. The issue becomes all-or-nothing on both sides. The 18th pamphlet is a rousing speech by Joseph Warren commemorating the Boston Massacre while the final pamphlet in this volume is known as the "Boston pamphlet". It is the work of a committee, and it states the nature of America's grievances with Great Britain.
The writing in these pamphlets ranges from the details of daily life in Britain and America, to intricate issues of taxation, to broad-ranging history beginning with the Magna Charta, to questions of politics and philosophy. The volume begins with a brief quotation from John Adams writing in 1815 to Thomas Jefferson. Adams wrote:
"What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 -- 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington. The Records of thirteen Legislatures, the Pamphlets, Newspapers in all the Colonies ought to be consulted, during that Period, to ascertain the Steps by which the public Opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the Authority of Parliament over the Colonies."
This book and its companion offer the reader an outstanding introduction to the importance of the ideas at issue in the American Revolution and to the continued unfolding and significance of these ideas. The books offer great materials for reflection on the origins of the American experience. The Library of America kindly provided me with a review copy of the two-volume box set.
Robin Friedman
Prepared by the distinguished historian of the American Revolution Gordon Wood, this new book is the first of a two-volume Library of America box set of source materials on "The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate, 1764 -- 1776". The two volumes cover the increasing disagreements between Great Britain and the American colonies about the nature of their relationship. The ultimate result was the American Revolutionary War and American independence. The two volumes gain a great deal from being read together, and I have reviewed the box set here on Goodeads: "The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate 1764-1776". I thought it would be valuable to review the individual volumes as well. The two volumes include 39 pamphlets written from a variety of perspectives on the deteriorating relationship between Great Britain and America. The first volume, which I am reviewing here, includes 19 pamphlets written between 1764 -- 1772 while the successor volume includes 20 pamphlets written between 1773 -- 1776.
Especially in this first volume, understanding the debate in these pamphlets requires a degree of historical knowledge. The debate began after the British-American success in the Seven Years War with Britain's acquisition of a large colonial empire. The opening pamphlet in this volume, written by "Cato" expresses skepticism about Britain's ability to manage her new far-flung territory. After the war, Britain attempted to tax the colonies to pay for the great expenses of the struggle, and the trouble between the colonies and the mother country began. The colonies objected strongly to Britain's power to tax when the colonies were not and could not be represented in parliament.
In this volume, the pamphlet debate is less focused than in the successor volume and is tied to changing policies. Some supporters of Britain argued that the colonies had "virtual" representation in parliament while supporters of the colonies denied this. Other British writers denied that the colonists' lack of representation made no difference to the power to tax. Then too, some colonists argued that parliament could not tax them but that it could impose duties on products imported from Britain. Other pamphlet writers, both those who supported America and those who supported Britain, found this a distinction without a difference. Matters would come to a head with a discussion of sovereignty -- essentially whether Britain and the United States, with the passage of time and 3000 miles of ocean separating them, constituted one people or instead had become two. The pamphlets in this volume allow the reader to see the progress of the debate through these varied positions. The pamphlets also turn on various enactments of Parliament, including the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act stating that parliament had the right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever" and the Townshend Acts which purported to impose "duties" on imports (most infamously on tea) rather than taxes.
Gordon Wood's ancillary material do a great deal to help the reader through the pamphlet debate. Wood offers a brief introduction to each pamphlet which describes the issues at stake together with an overview introduction to the entire debate. The book also includes a valuable chronology of the course of the First British Empire, biographies of the authors of the pamphlets, and notes on the publication history of the pamphlets and on difficult points in their contents. This material helps clarify what remains dense and heavy but highly rewarding reading.
Many of the pamphlets in this volume have not been reprinted before and will be unfamiliar to all but specialist readers. Broadly speaking, the first eight pamphlets offer a variety of perspectives on the Stamp Act and on other early attempts by Britain to legislate for the colonies. The ninth pamphlet consists of Benjamin Franklin's testimony before an "August Assembly" explaining the nature of the Americans' objections to the Stamp Act. Franklin as always was careful and equivocal. Britain repealed the Stamp Act while insisting on its power to legislate. The tenth pamphlet comments astutely on the incongruity of this position.
The most famous pamphlet in this volume is no. 11, John Dickinson's "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" written in 1768. It is an erudite call for the colonies to unite and to oppose British duties, however styled, which threaten American liberty. It is valuable to have this important series of twelve letters readily accessible to readers in this volume.
Pamphlets 12 -15 offer a variety of perspectives on the Townshend Duties. The controversy escalates in the paired pamphlets of William Knox and Edward Bancroft which focus the issue on sovereignty. The issue becomes all-or-nothing on both sides. The 18th pamphlet is a rousing speech by Joseph Warren commemorating the Boston Massacre while the final pamphlet in this volume is known as the "Boston pamphlet". It is the work of a committee, and it states the nature of America's grievances with Great Britain.
The writing in these pamphlets ranges from the details of daily life in Britain and America, to intricate issues of taxation, to broad-ranging history beginning with the Magna Charta, to questions of politics and philosophy. The volume begins with a brief quotation from John Adams writing in 1815 to Thomas Jefferson. Adams wrote:
"What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 -- 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington. The Records of thirteen Legislatures, the Pamphlets, Newspapers in all the Colonies ought to be consulted, during that Period, to ascertain the Steps by which the public Opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the Authority of Parliament over the Colonies."
This book and its companion offer the reader an outstanding introduction to the importance of the ideas at issue in the American Revolution and to the continued unfolding and significance of these ideas. The books offer great materials for reflection on the origins of the American experience. The Library of America kindly provided me with a review copy of the two-volume box set.
Robin Friedman
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September 28, 2015973.311 A51276 2015
February 28, 2022
Sheds a lot of light on what people were actually thinking and saying. Some of the pamphlets were a little boring. Worth reading for anyone interested in the period. The pamphleteers are afraid of being enslaved to the British parliament but they are slavers themselves? It's strange that this wasn't even mentioned in passing in any of the pamphlets. The colonists also seem to venerate the Romans despite it being fairly clear what Rome's position would be had America been one of its provinces and revolted.
Read
April 17, 2023Reading through these 19 pamphlets has been fascinating. They are a true representation of the debate between the colonies and Great Britain.
Some of the pamphlets are a great pleasure to read (Benjamin Franklin’s testimony before Parliament and John Dickinson’s Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania), while others are incredibly dense and boring; but all of which are rewarding. The worst offender is an 80 page pamphlet by Parliament member Whately, as he expounds on the nuances of each colony’s contributions to the greater kingdom, complete with the products they produce, their climates, and the revenue they contribute. Not someone you’d want to grab a beer with.
The debates are fluid as they move from internal vs external taxes to direct vs virtual representation to superior vs inferior assemblies to sovereignty and hints of independence. At the end of the day, I’ve concluded that all of these arguments are really just expedient means to defend a much deeper issue of the time.
At the heart of it all is really the fact that the American colonists and the English had grown into two different peoples. After the Seven Years War the Americans emerged as a more powerful people with increasing commerce, production, and population. England was jealous and threatened by the colonies’ progress and feared that their role as the worlds greatest super power would be diminished by their colonies increasing strength. As such, they started implementing measures to keep the colonists dependent on them and to exert their dominance over them. But much like children, the Americans came of age and were ready to move on from their Mother Country.
I think a better move for Great Britain would have been to release the colonists to their own devices and create a mutually beneficial trade between the two as separate allies, but that would have been a tall order when pride and jealousy are at play. Not to mention the fact that the world was still ruled through monarchies and kings, not republics governed by the people themselves.
There are some subtle and some not-so-subtle indicators of all this throughout the debates. Im looking forward to the reading the next round of pamphlets in the second part of this series, from 1773-1776.
Some of the pamphlets are a great pleasure to read (Benjamin Franklin’s testimony before Parliament and John Dickinson’s Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania), while others are incredibly dense and boring; but all of which are rewarding. The worst offender is an 80 page pamphlet by Parliament member Whately, as he expounds on the nuances of each colony’s contributions to the greater kingdom, complete with the products they produce, their climates, and the revenue they contribute. Not someone you’d want to grab a beer with.
The debates are fluid as they move from internal vs external taxes to direct vs virtual representation to superior vs inferior assemblies to sovereignty and hints of independence. At the end of the day, I’ve concluded that all of these arguments are really just expedient means to defend a much deeper issue of the time.
At the heart of it all is really the fact that the American colonists and the English had grown into two different peoples. After the Seven Years War the Americans emerged as a more powerful people with increasing commerce, production, and population. England was jealous and threatened by the colonies’ progress and feared that their role as the worlds greatest super power would be diminished by their colonies increasing strength. As such, they started implementing measures to keep the colonists dependent on them and to exert their dominance over them. But much like children, the Americans came of age and were ready to move on from their Mother Country.
I think a better move for Great Britain would have been to release the colonists to their own devices and create a mutually beneficial trade between the two as separate allies, but that would have been a tall order when pride and jealousy are at play. Not to mention the fact that the world was still ruled through monarchies and kings, not republics governed by the people themselves.
There are some subtle and some not-so-subtle indicators of all this throughout the debates. Im looking forward to the reading the next round of pamphlets in the second part of this series, from 1773-1776.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews