Revolution and Counterrevolution in America

by John Peterson

The history of the United States is a history of violence, oppression, speculation, theft, enslavement, and war. But it is also a history of mass resistance, sacrifice, and revolutionary expropriation. In Revolution and Counterrevolution in America, John Peterson examines three defining periods of US the American Revolution, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Under the banner of liberty, the thirteen colonies overthrew British rule, ushering in the rule of the American bourgeoisie. However, enshrined in the US Constitution was the insoluble contradiction of slavery. To abolish this vile institution, a Second American Revolution was required-the Civil War. What began as a war to preserve the Union was transformed into a revolutionary war to end slavery. The convulsive period of revolution and counterrevolution known as Reconstruction followed. Despite their heroic efforts at self-organization and defense, the aspirations of millions of freedpeople were betrayed by the Northern capitalists. All of these struggles shaped the American nation-state and laid the basis for US imperialism. In these pages, there are countless lessons to be learned about the dynamics of revolution and counterrevolution as a new generation of revolutionaries prepares for the momentous class battles yet to come.

484 pages, Paperback

Published May 28, 2026

About the author

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Reviews

[W. Blacksmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, easy-to-read, and timely released book that answered most of the questions I had about the history of the USA, especially the revolutionary parts of the story.

The section explaining the complex political economy of the pre-revolutionary era of the USA was quite interesting and enlightening, and was truly an insane example of the Marxist theory of combined and uneven development.

But more importantly, learning about Bacon’s Rebellion was truly remarkable for me. It really solidified my understanding of the real material sources of racism:

“Bacon drew support from a broad coalition of the disenfranchised and dispossessed. These included yeoman farmers, landless freemen, Black and white indentured servants, and African chattels.”

And:

“The fear of civil war among whites frightened Virginia’s ruling elite, who took steps to consolidate power and improve their image: for example, restoration of property qualifications for voting, reducing taxes, and adoption of a more aggressive American Indian policy.”

"Most importantly, however, it catalyzed the transition to racial slavery, a cancerous blight that has metastasized throughout the centuries ever since. An interracial alliance of the laboring majority was the colonial elites’ worst nightmare—and remains an incubus for the ruling class to this day."

[Evan Minniti · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Nothing lasts forever, including America’s bourgeois republic. Just two and a half centuries after a skirmish in Massachusetts helped set the modern world in motion, the edifice of US capitalism is tottering, and a majority have lost all confidence in its political parties, leaders, and institutions.

The capitalist mode of production has exhausted its historically progressive role and has nothing left to offer our species. The incessant economic chaos and political dysfunction merely expresses the fact that the capitalists are no longer fit to rule over us —and haven’t been for over a century.

A new class must take political and economic power. A society must be built, and classes must be abolished altogether. Just as capitalism was propelled by the labor of millions of slaves, the material basis for socialism has been laid by billions of wage slaves. And just as the divergent interests of the colonial and antebellum societies could no longer coexist, the interests of capitalists and workers cannot be indefinitely maintained within the antiquated confines of capitalism.

Revolutionary epochs are as terrifying as they are exhilarating, and the years ahead will be neither easy nor serene. And yet, given the time objective potential for socialism, there has never been a better time to be alive. As Abigail Adams expressed it in the parlance of her time:
‘These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.’”