The Great Upheaval
War, Migration, and Transformation in Early Modern America, 1675–1725
Ian Saxine (Edited by), Kristalyn Marie Shefveland (Edited by)
9781496234506
Hardback, published 1 January 2026
352 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg
“The collection helps expand our understanding of Atlantic history by placing significant moments in the history of the Pueblos, Haudenosaunee, Native Southerners, and Native peoples of southern New England alongside other revolutions in European political thought, imperial governance, and Atlantic slavery. Each of the chapters provides a concise overview of major events and processes that will help anyone trying to gain a comprehensive understanding of an astoundingly complex field.”—James L. Hill, author of Creek Internationalism in an Age of Revolution, 1763–1818
“These chapters do a very good job using traditional historical narratives to critique linear progress. . . . Using upheaval as a means to critique development, progress, and linearity reveals the many opportunities for non-white or even traditionally marginalized white actors to play the important historic roles they did.”—Patrick Bottiger, author of The Borderland of Fear: Vincennes, Prophetstown, and the Invasion of the Miami Homeland
The Great Upheaval seeks to challenge the periodization employed by most Anglophone scholars of colonial North America and to better integrate scholarship of North America and the Atlantic world with broader early modern histories. Imperial crises were not mere disturbances in a long story of imperial consolidation that began in the early seventeenth century; for a half century these crises—not growth or stability—were the norm. The contributors treat these numerous outbreaks of violence not as interruptions in a “provincial” era but as marking a distinct period in time: the Great Upheaval.
The rigidly enforced social hierarchies in colonial North America during this era accelerated the exchange of people, goods, and ideas in unprecedented volumes, accompanied by rising Anglophone military and commercial power at sea, and a population increase of colonists that were all not only preceded by, but made possible by, the Great Upheaval.
Preface and Acknowledgments
Maps
Part I.
Ian Saxine and Kristalyn Marie Shefveland Introduction
- Kristalyn Marie Shefveland Rebellions and Indian Slavery: The Great Upheaval in Virginia
- Daniel Mandell Southern New England’
s Great Upheaval
- Garrett Wright Restoration through Upheaval: The Pueblo Revolt and the Transformation of the Southwest
- Owen Stanwood Protestant Currents: The Glorious Revolution in the Atlantic World, 1678-1715
- Adam Jortner The Witchcraft Crisis and the End of Puritanism
Part II.
- Scott Berthelette From Imperial Crisis to a New Vision of Empire: New France and the Iroquois Wars
- Aitor DÍ
az Paredes Great European Coalition Wars and the Contest for Naval Supremacy in the Atlantic World (1675-1725)
- Craig Gallagher Independence for Empire: Scotland Transformed at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century
- Frances L. Ramos The Viceroyalty of New Spain’
s Great Upheaval: Defense and Daily Life during the War of the Spanish Succession
- Christopher Hodson Centers of Gravity: The Sun King and the Atlantic World
Part III.
- Aubrey Lauersdorf Native Southerners and the Great Upheaval
- Ian Saxine The Great Upheaval in the Wabanaki Dawnland
Ian Saxine and Kristalyn Marie Shefveland Conclusion
