Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 / Edition 2

by Robert Middlekauff

Overview

This is outstanding narrative history in the grand style -- an eloquent and dramatic account of vital events and vibrant figures which has become the basic opus on the Revolutionary War. The Glorious Cause is a compelling account of the American colonies' struggle for independence. Middlekauff charts the growing conflict between England and America -- the political and personal controversies within the halls of Parliament to establish a viable colonial policy -- to the ultimate outbreak of military confrontation in 1775 and 1776.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900195035758
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	02/28/1985
Series:	Oxford History of the United States Series
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	720
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Middlekauff is Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. The winner of a Bancroft Prize for The Mathers, he was Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University and also served as Director of the Huntington Library, Art Gallery, and Botanical Gardens.

Table of Contents

	Editor's Introduction	xv
	Prologue: The Sustaining Truths	3
1.	The Obstructed Giant	7
2.	The Children of the Twice-Born	26
3.	Beginnings: From the Top Down	49
4.	The Stamp Act Crisis	70
5.	Response	94
6.	Selden's Penny	118
7.	Chance and Charles Townshend	136
8.	Boston Takes the Lead	153
9.	The "Bastards of England,"	174
10.	Drift	208
11.	Resolution	221
12.	War	250
13.	"Half a War"	274
14.	Independece	312
15.	The War of Posts	333
16.	The War of Maneuver	363
17.	The Revolution Becomes a European War	396
18.	The War in the South	434
19.	The "Fugitive War"	458
20.	Inside the Campaigns	496
21.	Outside the Campaigns	535
22.	Yorktown and Paris	559
23.	The Constitutional Movement	582
24.	The Children of the Twice-Born in the 1780s	602
25.	The Constitutional Convention	622
26.	Ratification: An End and a Beginning	649
	Epilogue: The Enduring Truths	665
	Abbreviated Titles	666
	Bibliographical Note	669
	Index	675

Editorial Reviews

Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for History

"This is narrative history at its best, written in a conversational and engaging style....A major revision and expansion of a popular history of the American Revolutionary period."—Library Journal

"A tour de force. Middlekauff has the admirable ability to capture historical truths in vivid images and memorable phrases....Middlekauff's empathy enhances this massive book's cumulative power. The cause was glorious; the book is too."—Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World

"The reader in search of a wide-ranging overview of the Revolution would be better off turning to any number of earlier books (from Trevelyan's classic 'American Revolution' to more recent works like 'The Glorious Cause' by Robert Middlekauff)."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Acclaim for the First Edition:
"One of the best one-volume accounts of the Revolutionary war."—The New York Times

"A striking success. Middlekauff is both elegant and eloquent. Whether he is describing the making of British policy, or sketching the character of Washington or Pitt, or explaining why Daniel Morgan positioned the American troops at Hannah's Cowpens so retreat would be impossible, he does in a few paragraphs or pages what others might struggle through a chapter to get right."—The New Republic

"A first-class narrative history. There is probably no history of the Revolution that better combines a full account of the military course of the war with consideration of all the other forces shaping the era." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Middlekauff's energy and clarity often make us read as eagerly as if we did not know how this struggle will come out."—The New Yorker

"Writing with a grace and clarity that recall Samuel Eliot Morison, Middlekauff gives us classic entry into the critical period of American history." —The Los Angeles Times

"His narrative account goes along at a fast pace. He moves with agility from profound political and philosophical disputes of the period to the scenes of battle and the problems of military strategy. A welcome addition to the history of the Revolution." —The Washington Post Book World

"First-rate narrative history—one can hardly imagine a better one-volume introduction to the period. Graced with plentiful illustrations, gracefully written and long enough (at nearly 700 pages) to afford ample attention to detail, this book is highly recommended to the general reader."—Newsday

From the Publisher