To Begin the World Over Again: How the American Revolution Devastated the Globe

by Matthew Lockwood

The first exploration of the profound and often catastrophic impact the American Revolution had on the rest of the world

While the American Revolution led to domestic peace and liberty, it ultimately had a catastrophic global impact—it strengthened the British Empire and led to widespread persecution and duress. From the opium wars in China to anti-imperial rebellions in Peru to the colonization of Australia—the inspirational impact the American success had on fringe uprisings was outweighed by the influence it had on the tightening fists of oppressive world powers.

Here Matthew Lockwood presents, in vivid detail, the neglected story of this unintended revolution. It sowed the seeds of collapse for the preeminent empires of the early modern era, setting the stage for the global domination of Britain, Russia, and the United States. Lockwood illuminates the forgotten stories and experiences of the communities and individuals who adapted to this new world in which the global balance of power had been drastically altered.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Audiobook, World History, 18th Century

512 pages, Hardcover

Published October 22, 2019

About the author

Matthew Lockwood is assistant professor of history at the University of Alabama and the author of The Conquest of Death: Violence and the Birth of the Modern English State.

Reviews

[Sir · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are a lot of reasons I did not like this book. Mostly, it was too much of a gimmick to hold water.

1. It's an editorial with a driving opinion, which is fine, but then it is dense, long reading with unnecessarily complicated prose.
2. American exceptionalism is an old, tired argument. Every nation is exceptional if you look hard enough at it. Because America has been so powerful, rich, and populous, it is disproportionately examined. And every author wants to justify their new book by asserting its uniqueness. The result is an overstated sense of exceptionalism. This book adds a ridiculous amount of fuel to the fire. The U.S. was about as important to global affairs in this period as Belgium is today (it counts, gets some attention but not a driver). The U.S. merits close study in this period primarily because what the U.S. became later.
3. Almost all of the things listed as consequences of the American actions/inactions in this book would have happened in some for or another anyway. This was because the U.S. was not that important in driving global affairs.
4. The author attempts to conflate the importance of the U.S. by adding it to British history. The problem is that the American colonies and later U.S. did not drive British actions or policy. The colonists certainly wanted to, tried, failed, and then rebelled in protest. After the revolution, however, Britain continued to dominate the U.S. economically for the next couple of generations. A. G. Hopkin's new book makes a far more compelling argument for seeing the U.S. as part of the informal British Empire during the 19th century.
5. Most of the things listed as the American Revolution influencing in the British Empire were happening already. British interest and capital was moving East, concern about the African slave trade, etc.--all consequences of the Seven Years War, not the American Revolution. If anything, the outbreak of war with the American colonies delayed, rather than accelerated this shift.

It might be useful as a way to get readers to think more globally about the American Revolution, but there are already a wide range of better books that do that without playing to an overstated gimmick.

[Guera25 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Americans have thought they were the center of the universe for too long, so now I'm going to write a book about how every bad thing that happened in the world since their founding is their fault. That'll get 'em to stop thinking everything is about them."

It's more complicated than that, but not by much, and it's not going to get the casual reader to reassess American exceptionalism.

[dea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic read! The prose was not as compelling as the subject, but still an incredible book.

[Matt Cherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating documentation of the ripple effects of the American Revolution beyond US and even British shores. Along the way, the reader learns a lot about contemporary events in South America, West Africa, India, China and Australia — locales that don’t get a lot of attention in most history classes in American schools.

My only real critiques of the book are these.

1: It ends very abruptly. The book would have benefitted from an epilogue...one final summing-up of the author’s thesis.

2. A lot of silly typos and grammatical mistakes were missed by the editor. For example, Vietnam is misspelled. It takes away from what is an otherwise very scholarly and engrossing work.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dunno I couldn't get into this. I can barely work up interest in the American revolution and I am an American. I mean I can sometimes read about the Republic of Letters and Encyclopedists of the enlightenment or even pirates but I don't find much else of interest in the 18th century. Just dreary exploitation and empires clashing. Not much fun for me.
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following reviews


READING PROGRESS
December 26, 2020 – Started Reading
December 26, 2020 – Shelved
December 29, 2020 – page 10
1.95%
December 29, 2020 – page 38
7.42%
December 29, 2020 – page 83
16.21%
December 29, 2020 – page 125
24.41%
December 29, 2020 – page 152
29.69%
December 29, 2020 – page 179
34.96%
December 29, 2020 – page 235
45.9%
December 29, 2020 – page 274
53.52%
December 29, 2020 – page 314
61.33%
December 29, 2020 – page 356
69.53% "I don't know about what people think but I find the geopolitical chessboard in the late 18th century is pretty damn dreary,"
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: african-history
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: american-history
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: australia-new-zealand
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: canada
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: east-asia
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: eighteenth-century
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: european-history
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: india-pakistan
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: middle-east
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: pacific-islands
December 29, 2020 – Shelved as: russian-history
December 29, 2020 – Finished Reading

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Matthew Lockwood presents a number of historical "episodes" - some very extensive and long-lasting, some shorter and more focused - in a highly-researched volume that I found quite interesting while I was arguing with his premise for much of the book. The connection between these varied histories, in Dr. Lockwood's view, is that each was highly influenced by the impact of the British-colonial America interaction that we Americans tend to call the Revolutionary War.

A perhaps too-short description of his connection in most of the situations is that the impact of the war on Britain resulted in changes to British strategy and tactics, which resulted, among other things, in igniting or exacerbating political or social events in many places around the world. Well, maybe so...but can't that be said about a very large number of events, large and small that have occurred and continue to occur? This is, and has been, a highly connected world ... as the current coronavirus spread is showing us (which, of course, has occurred since publication of this work).

So, despite the hyperbole in the title, and perhaps a bit of overclaim in the author's thesis, he does present a strong reminder to us of the global interconnection that impacts all of us. I would suggest, though, that the interconnection extends to positive events as well as to events that can be seen primarily through a darker lens. I do plan to read more of Dr. Lockwood's work.

[M B · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting concept often aped from others before him falls short as the author simply tries to hard to pin too much on one country, the United States of America. His attempts at convincing the reader that the American Revolution is the sole influence of so many wrongs just misses the mark and lacks merit, instead relying on political belief and not historical fact. The arbitrary nature he casually and recklessly tries to tie in further events to continue the political statement render this nearly unreadable and devoid of value.

[Ella Szczepanski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took a bit to get through because I was very busy with school. Really liked the concept but wished it wasn’t so centered on Great Britain and expanded beyond the early 19th century which would have made it more interesting. Also there were so many typos especially with dates which tripped me up sometimes and also there was no like conclusion or wrap up chapter at the end. Overall though a valuable read, there were lots of great passages and arguments presented.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dunno I couldn't get into this. I can barely work up interest in the American revolution and I am an American. I mean I can sometimes read about the Republic of Letters and Encyclopedists of the enlightenment or even pirates but I don't find much else of interest in the 18th century. Just dreary exploitation and empires clashing. Not much fun for me.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read half this book via two library renewals. It is a good book, but very dense.

[нєνєℓ ¢ανα · Rating 3 out of 5]

A trying at best....

[Mike Emett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Required reading for a graduate seminar, Historians debate the American Revolution