Volume I offers an introduction to the Enlightenment, which served as the shared background for virtually all revolutionary turmoil, and the American Revolution, which inaugurated the Age of Revolutions. Beginning with a thorough introduction, the volume covers international rivalry, the importance of slavery, and the reformist mind-set that prevailed on the eve of the revolutionary era. It addresses the traditional argument on whether the Enlightenment truly caused revolutions, concluding that the reverse is more apt: revolutions helped create the Enlightenment as a body of thought. The volume continues with a regional and thematic assessment of the American Revolution, revealing how numerous groups in British America – including Black and indigenous people – pursued their own agendas and faced interests at odds with the principles of the revolution.

‘Klooster has collected seventy-one essays, managing to give an idea of the ongoing debate: solid reconstructions … attempt to bring together historiography and history from different schools and perspectives. One can only appreciate the desire to reconstruct the historiographical debate because it opens the doors to the lives of scholars and their motivations and determinations in electing a theme and a research direction … The necessary nuances and chiaroscuro make the picture more authentic and point to other possible studies.’

Michaela Valente Source: Archivio Storico Italiano