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Republic and Empire: Crisis, Revolution, and America's Early Independence
A fresh look at the American Revolution as a major global event
At the time of the American Revolution (1765–83), the British Empire had colonies in India, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Canada, Ireland, and Gibraltar. The thirteen rebellious American colonies accounted for half of the total number of provinces in the British world in 1776. What of the loyal half? Why did some of Britain’s subjects feel so aggrieved that they wanted to establish a new system of government, while others did not rebel? In this authoritative history, Trevor Burnard and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy show that understanding the long-term causes of the American Revolution requires a global view.
As much as it was an event in the history of the United States, the American Revolution was an imperial event produced by the upheavals of managing a far-flung set of imperial possessions during a turbulent period of reform. By looking beyond the familiar borders of the Revolution and considering colonies that did not rebel—Quebec, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, India, the British Caribbean, Senegal, and Ireland—Burnard and O’Shaughnessy go beyond the republican, liberal, and democratic aspects of the emerging American nation, providing a broader history that transcends what we think we know about the Revolution.
At the time of the American Revolution (1765–83), the British Empire had colonies in India, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Canada, Ireland, and Gibraltar. The thirteen rebellious American colonies accounted for half of the total number of provinces in the British world in 1776. What of the loyal half? Why did some of Britain’s subjects feel so aggrieved that they wanted to establish a new system of government, while others did not rebel? In this authoritative history, Trevor Burnard and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy show that understanding the long-term causes of the American Revolution requires a global view.
As much as it was an event in the history of the United States, the American Revolution was an imperial event produced by the upheavals of managing a far-flung set of imperial possessions during a turbulent period of reform. By looking beyond the familiar borders of the Revolution and considering colonies that did not rebel—Quebec, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, India, the British Caribbean, Senegal, and Ireland—Burnard and O’Shaughnessy go beyond the republican, liberal, and democratic aspects of the emerging American nation, providing a broader history that transcends what we think we know about the Revolution.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 16, 2025
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August 20, 2026On 3 September 1783 George III reluctantly accepted that 13 of his erstwhile dominions on the North American mainland were now independent states. A major blow to the British Empire, the Peace of Paris ended a conflict that had turned a civil war within the Empire into an international war pitting an isolated Britain against not only the 13 colonies but the rival empires of France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Thus, the United States was born out of one of the worst crises in British imperial history.
Historians have long preferred the American origin story over that of imperial crisis. It takes a small library to house the books on the former. A good-sized bookcase will fit those on the latter. Such scholarly imbalance is unfortunate because the causes and consequences of the American Revolution cannot be fully understood outside the imperial context. This intervention by two leading historians of Britain’s 18th-century empire arrives just in time for the semiquincentennial. Spanning the period from the Seven Years’ War to the French Revolution, the late Trevor Burnard and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy’s insightful Republic and Empire treats the American Revolution as one event, albeit a major one, in the history of the remarkably sturdy British Empire.
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Max Edling is Professor of Early American History at King’s College London.
Historians have long preferred the American origin story over that of imperial crisis. It takes a small library to house the books on the former. A good-sized bookcase will fit those on the latter. Such scholarly imbalance is unfortunate because the causes and consequences of the American Revolution cannot be fully understood outside the imperial context. This intervention by two leading historians of Britain’s 18th-century empire arrives just in time for the semiquincentennial. Spanning the period from the Seven Years’ War to the French Revolution, the late Trevor Burnard and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy’s insightful Republic and Empire treats the American Revolution as one event, albeit a major one, in the history of the remarkably sturdy British Empire.
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Max Edling is Professor of Early American History at King’s College London.
January 2, 2026
This is a book that can give you a different perspective of the American Revolution, viewed from the perspective of the British building and maintaining a world wide empire. I think the book could have benefitted from a general history narrative of the British Empire in the 18th century before it dives deep into analysis and thought. Most of the history narrative is interspersed throughout its chapters. More maps would have been helpful.
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May 15, 2026Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews