HIST 410: The American Revolution

The American Revolution

In 1776, thirteen of the two dozen British colonies in the Americas revolted against the British Empire and formed a new and independent nation: The United States of America. The causes and consequences of the event and its very nature have been the subject of intense debate ever since. An enormous range of questions have circulated around the event. Was it a civil war? To what extent did Americans reject monarchy? What collection of ideologies and economic and political interests caused the Americans to revolt?  How inevitable was the event? How revolutionary was it? How many people supported the revolt and why? How did the Americans manage to unify thirteen disparate “states”? When and how did a common American identity form? How significantly did the revolution change the lives of the people living in the thirteen colonies? How did a small army of colonial rebels manage to defeat the most powerful military force in the Atlantic World? This course will explore all of these questions and more while we examine both the fascinating history and the vast historiography of the American Revolution.