Research Catalog

Among the powers of the earth : the American Revolution and the making of a new world empire / Eliga H. Gould.

Title: Among the powers of the earth : the American Revolution and the making of a new world empire / Eliga H. Gould.
Author: Gould, Eliga H.
Publication: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Not available - Please for assistance.	Text	Request in advance	E249 .G68 2012	Off-site

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Details

Description

301 pages, 22 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps; 24 cm

Summary

"For most Americans, the Revolution's main achievement is summed up by the phrase 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Yet far from a straightforward attempt to be free of Old World laws and customs, the American founding was also a bid for inclusion in the community of nations as it existed in 1776. America aspired to diplomatic recognition under international law and the authority to become a colonizing power itself. The Revolution was an international transformation of the first importance. To conform to the public law of Europe's imperial powers, Americans crafted a union nearly as centralized as the one they had overthrown, endured taxes heavier than any they had faced as British colonists, and remained entangled with European Atlantic empires long after the Revolution ended. No factor weighed more heavily on Americans than the legally plural Atlantic where they hoped to build their empire. Gould follows the region's transfiguration from a fluid periphery with its own rules and norms to a place where people of all descriptions were expected to abide by the laws of Western Europe -- 'civilized' laws that precluded neither slavery nor the dispossession of Native Americans."--Jacket.

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

committed to retain

Contents

Introduction: a nation among nations -- On the margins of Europe -- The law of slavery -- Pax Britannica -- Independence -- A slaveholding republic -- The new world and the old -- Epilogue: Mr. Monroe's peace.

ISBN

9780674046085
0674046080
9780674416949
0674416945
9780674065024 (canceled/invalid)
0674065026 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2011035333
40020695879

OCLC

748941753

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library