Settlers, Liberty, and Empire
The Roots of Early American Political Theory, 1675–1775

Craig Yirush provides a long-term explanation of the distinctive ideas of the American Revolution.

Craig Yirush (Author)

9780521193306, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 February 2011

288 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'The discovery at the heart of Settlers, Liberty, and Empire - and the achievement that centers the book securely between past and present - is its re-dating of the pre-Revolutionary tipping point backward in time from 1760–76 to the early and mid-eighteenth century (the 1720s to the 1750s). During the quarter century leading up to … the pre-Revolutionary era, Yirush demonstrates, a deposit of political ideas generated by Restoration politics and by the Revolution of 1688 acquired critical mass.' Robert M. Calhoon, H-Albion (h-net.org/~albion)

Traces the emergence of a revolutionary conception of political authority on the far shores of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Based on the equal natural right of English subjects to leave the realm, claim indigenous territory and establish new governments by consent, this radical set of ideas culminated in revolution and republicanism. But unlike most scholarship on early American political theory, Craig Yirush does not focus solely on the revolutionary era of the late eighteenth century. Instead, he examines how the political ideas of settler elites in British North America emerged in the often-forgotten years between the Glorious Revolution in America and the American Revolution against Britain. By taking seriously an imperial world characterized by constitutional uncertainty, geo-political rivalry and the ongoing presence of powerful Native American peoples, Yirush provides a long-term explanation for the distinctive ideas of the American Revolution.

Introduction: Jasper Maudit's 'instructions': the imperial roots of early American political theory
Part I. Restoration and Rebellion: 1. English rights in an Atlantic world
2. The Glorious Revolution in America
Part II. Empire: 3. Jeremiah Dummer and the defense of chartered government
4. John Bulkley and the Mohegans
5. Daniel Dulany and the natural right to English law
6. Richard Bland and the prerogative in pre-revolutionary Virginia
Part III. Revolution: 7. In search of a unitary empire
8. The final imperial crisis
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]