The American Revolution: Two Centuries of Interpretation

by Edmund S. Morgan

COLLECTION OF ESSAYS

Genres: American, History

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Edmund Sears Morgan

Reviews

[Michael Loveless · Rating 2 out of 5]

Edmund Morgan's, The American Revolution, is a chronological collection of writings on the revolution. Morgan included excerpts from the best writers of each generation. Each chapter represents the thinking of an era. The book shows the original view that the revolutionists were patriots who sacrificed everything in the noble pursuit of an ideal. Over time, historians began to focus on the British perspective. By the 1920s historians were looking at the Founding Fathers as men who acted in a self-interested way. I enjoyed following the evolution of the historiography of the Revolution, but this book isn't for everyone. Historians read each other's writings, add to them, and correct them over time. Therefore, much of the writing in the book is out of date. The book is more of a study of the historians than it is a study of the Revolution. The other problem with the book is that it's out of date. With it's 1965 copyright it doesn't include important, recent scholarship, most importantly Gordon Wood. This book was mildly interesting to me, but most people would probably be better of reading a more general history of the Revolution.