Experiencing Empire
Power, People, and Revolution in Early America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4155461 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew Kruer (University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 653-654 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jay302 |
| OpenAlex | W2906510463 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
This edited collection seeks to redefine the era of the American Revolution. The bookends—an introduction by Patrick Griffin and a conclusion by T. H. Breen—suggest a reconceptualization of the revolutionary period by using imperial transformation as a pivot. The essays between them focus on the granular details of power relations in the ways that people interacted with empires amid rapid change. Each of these two components are excellent in themselves, but they do not form a fully coherent whole. Griffin outlines what he calls the “imperial-revolutionary moment”: a continuous arc of change from 1763 to 1789 in which newly politicized Britons contested the terms of empire, struggled over the meaning of sovereignty, and then resurrected empire in a new form (p. 19). The year 1776, then, was neither the destination of colonial history nor the origin of national history but a moment of fracture that changed the conditions of an ongoing struggle over the shape of imperial power. Griffin concedes that this framework has much in common with the old imperial school of figures such as Charles MacLean Andrews. However, he makes a persuasive case that the efflorescence of cultural approaches—such as the studies of indigeneity, race, sexuality, consumerism, and memory in this collection—make this framework worth revisiting
Ancient history · Colonialism · Economic history · Empire · Epistemology · Griffin · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Sovereignty · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Classics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |