Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution

by Michael D. Hattem

How American colonists reinterpreted their British and colonial histories to help establish political and cultural independence from Britain

"Recounts the fascinating process by which the colonists established a new identity and created a uniquely American history"— Journal of the American Revolution

“A powerful, clearly made argument that scholars on the revolution’s origins will need to reckon with.” —Frank Cogliano, University of Edinburgh

In Past and Prologue , Michael Hattem shows how colonists’ changing understandings of their British and colonial histories shaped the politics of the American Revolution and the origins of American national identity. Between the 1760s and 1800s, Americans stopped thinking of the British past as their own history and created a new historical tradition that would form the foundation for what subsequent generations would think of as “American history.” This change was a crucial part of the cultural transformation at the heart of the Revolution by which colonists went from thinking of themselves as British subjects to thinking of themselves as American citizens. Rather than liberating Americans from the past—as many historians have argued—the Revolution actually made the past matter more than ever. Past and Prologue shows how the process of reinterpreting the past played a critical role in the founding of the nation.

Genres: History, American Revolution, American History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published November 24, 2020

About the author

Michael D. Hattem is a historian of early America specializing in the American Revolution and historical memory. He earned his PhD in History from Yale University and BA in History from the City College of New York. He has taught a wide variety of early American history and American Studies courses at Knox College and Lang College at The New School.

Reviews

[Clayton]

#read for class!

really interesting how the american revolution "birthed" the modern american history. the american history used to start in europe with the glorious revolution, but now it starts in spain with columbus. that's certainly what i learned growing up. colonists prioritized natural law over common law to proclaim that the revolution was not radical and instead a continuous approach to history. i also really enjoyed the discussion on the birth of booksellers and libraries in the united states and how they sold and marketed this history to citizens. ironic how history books used to sell the most! i now assume its the novel. but colonists needed this "new" version of history to feel a sense of nationalism after the birth of their new nation—and so that no one would question their claims. class discussion over this should be very fruitful and exciting!

[Donald Leitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Hattem’s book, Past and Prologue, helped me to understand the concept of historic memory through the American Revolution. Hattem explores historical understanding and prevailing self identification characteristics in pre Revolution times and then illustrates in the second half of the book how the new United States recorded the history of the Revolution immediately following the Revolution while also building a new historic memory based on the experience of Revolution. This new historic memory was recognized by a number of leaders as an important component in forging a new identity for the new republic.

[Erik Champenois · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of the development of American history that shows how Americans moved to unify the colonies and early nation and distinguish their historical past from the history of Great Britain. While the colonies in the pre-1770s saw their colonial pasts as extensions of the British past, and there was not a sense of sharing a common history between the colonies, in the 1770s and beyond, the historical memory of the British past changed to justify the break from Britain, and the colonial past for the first time became a shared past. Additionally, the young nation rooted itself in a "deep past" that, instead of going back centuries to the British, drew on and appropriated the Native American past, the geological past of North America, and the pre-colonial developments starting with Columbus discovering the Americas.

The book explores in depth the changing narratives of the past vis-à-vis the American relationship to the Glorious Revolution, and to King and the Parliament. It also discusses the early American "network" of authors, publishers, and politicians promoting the development of early American history culture. All in all, a great book that adds a cultural and historical angle to the American Revolution to the economic, ideological, and geopolitical angles covered by authors elsewhere. Highly recommended for any reader interested in the American Revolution and the early republic.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has always been fascinated with the development of group identities, this detailed examination of how the idea of “America” and “Americans” not only was created, but evolved even in these early years, is a fascinating read. The book largely uses a chronological examination that allows even those readers with less in-depth knowledge of early American and colonial era politics (like me) to follow the changing perspectives and the events and figures that influence these changes. While this is definitely a history book, it is one that is easily accessible and that I highly recommend for anyone with an interest in learning more about how memory and identity are both inextricably linked and incredibly fluid in their meaning.