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America before 1787: The Unraveling of a Colonial Regime

Online ISBN:
9780691242668
Print ISBN:
9780691242651
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
Book

America before 1787: The Unraveling of a Colonial Regime

Jon Elster
Jon Elster
Columbia University
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Published online:
23 May 2024
Published in print:
25 April 2023
Online ISBN:
9780691242668
Print ISBN:
9780691242651
Publisher:
Princeton University Press

Abstract

This book offers the second volume of a projected trilogy that examines the emergence of constitutional politics in France and America. The book explores the increasingly uneasy relations between Britain and its American colonies and the social movements through which the thirteen colonies overcame their seemingly deep internal antagonisms. The book documents the importance of the radical uncertainty about their opponents that characterized both British and American elites and reveals the often neglected force of enthusiasm, and of emotions more generally, in shaping beliefs and in motivating actions. It provides the first detailed examinations of “divide and rule” as a strategy used on both sides of the Atlantic and of the rise and fall of collective action movements among the Americans. It also explains how the gradual undermining in America of the British imperial system took its toll on transatlantic relations and describes how state governments and the American Confederation made crucial institutional decisions that informed and constrained the making of the Constitution. The book brings together two fields of scholarship in innovative and original ways. The result is a unique synthesis that yields new insights into some of the most important events in modern history.

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