“Jameson was one of the most important intellectual institution builders in the first half of the last century, and the editors’ illuminating foreword explains why. But Jameson was also a pathbreaking historian: this little book, which I first read in graduate school, is a great example of ‘anticipatory scholarship.’ Jameson wrote a social history of the American Revolution before the emergence of social history as an academic discipline. Remarkable!”
— Stanley N. Katz, Princeton University
“Originally written one hundred years ago, Jameson’s brief volume transformed historians’ understanding of the American Revolution, exploring how independence not only created a new nation but reshaped American religious freedom, inheritance patterns, voting qualifications, and the institution of slavery. Now with a new, richly contextualized foreword, this edition reveals how and why Jameson’s work continues to have relevance today.”
— Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University, author of Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic
“Blaakman and Gordon’s fantastic new edition of J. Franklin Jameson’s ‘curious classic’ is perfectly timed for the nation’s semiquincentennial. Their attention to the institutional and political contexts for history making reminds the reader of why Jameson’s questions about the American Revolution, its waves of change, and its ultimate consequences remain as important after a century as they were when they were originally written. A must-read—and reread—for all students of the nation’s founding era.”
— Katherine Carté, author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History
